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EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING CO' 



New York. 



Chicago. 



THE PRIMCES5 




R MEDLEY 



V • BY 

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON 



WITH 

INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

BOSTON 

New York Chicago San Francisco 



29G95 



COPYRIGHTHD 

By educational PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

1898. 



AO COPIES RECEIVED, 









PREFACE. 

The elaborately annotated edition of " The 
Princess " by Prof. Percy M. Wallace (Macmillan 
& Co.) and S. E. Dawson's "A Study of the 
Princess" (Sampson, ]^ow & Co.) have been fol- 
lowed in the annotation of this edition. Students 
desiring to make a more thorough study of the 
Poem are referred to these works, as also to the 
editions by Henry W. Boynton (Leach, Shewell & 
Sanborn) and Prof. G. E. Woodbury (Macmillan 
& Co.) 

Ed. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Alfred Tennyson was born on xA.ugust 6th, 1S09, 
at Somersby, a village in Lincolnshire, England, of 
which his father was rector. 

When seven years old, he went to the Louth 
Grammar School, and returning home after a few 
years there, was educated with his elder brother 
Charles, by his father. Charles and Alfred Tenny- 
son, while yet youths, published in 1827 a small 
volume of poetry entitled Foeins by Two Brothers. 
In 1S28 the two brothers entered Trinity College, 
Cambridge, where Alfred gained the LIniversity 
Chancellor's gold medal for a poem on Timbuctoo, 
and where he formed an intimate friendship with 
Arthur Henry Hallam (son of the historian), whose 
memory he has immortalized in In Memoriam. \\\ 
1830 Tennyson pubHshed his Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. 
In 1832 Poems by Alfred Tennyson appeared, and 
then, after an interval of ten years, two more volumes, 
also with the title Poeins. His reputation as a poet 
was now established, though his greatest works were 
yet to come. Chief among these are The Princess 
(1847),/;/ Memoriajn {i^^o) , Maud (iZc^c^) , Idylls 
of the King ( 1 85 9- 1 885 ) , and Enoch Arden (1864) 
In 1875 Tf^^nyson published his first drama, Queen 
Mary, followed by Harold (1877), The Cup (acted 
in 1881), The Promise of May (1882,) The Falcon, 
and Becket (1884). On the death of Wordsworth 
in 1850, Tennyson succeeded him as Poet Laureate. 
In 1884, he was gazetted Baron of Aldworth and 
Farringford, his two seals in Sussex and in the Isle 
of Wight. He died on October 6th, 1892. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE PRINCESS. 



The Princess was first published in 1847, but the 
poem has undergone not a few alterations, both in 
matter and in language, since that date. 

The poem, therefore, as we now possess it, is 
the outcome of careful and sustained effort on the 
poet's part, the offspring of his mature powers, pol- 
ished and refined through several editions, and may 
thus be fairly regarded as a work upon which its 
author has bestowed the utmost of his critical after- 
thought as well as creative power. 

III. 

The Princess is a romance designed to indicate 
the poet's conception of the true sphere of woman 
and her function in society, a theme peculiarly suit- 
able to the genius of Tennyson, who not only was 
profoundly interested in all the social problems of 
the day, but also has shown himself specially happy 
in his studies of various types of womankind. 

In 1847, when this poem first appeared, the ques- 
tion of " Woman's Rights " was being vigorously 
discussed, and the poet, recognizing the vital impor- 
tance of the points at issue, and forseeing the dam- 
age that society would receive through the adoption 
of a false ideal for womankind, set himself to put 
the matter in a true and healthy light. The several 
points specially dwelt upon are the insufficiency of 
the culture of the intellect alone, the essential diver- 
sity between the sexes — diversity in kind not in 
degree — and the vanity of any attempt to crush 
out human impulses and affections. These may 
really be summed up under one head — that Nature 
is strongest of all things, that she will not be thwarted, 



INTRODUCTION. Ill 

that attempts to act in defiance of her principles 
must be either grotesque or tragical in their results 

— not improbably both — and that true wisdom 
consists in the organization of our lives — physical, 
mental, moral, social, political — in conformity with 
her eternal laws. 

And how has the poet set himself to enforce this 
lesson ? By sketching for us the history of a scheme 
based upon the denial of this principle, and showing 
us how from the beginning it was doomed to failure. 
But there is no malice in his treatment of the case 

— he is tender and generous to the utmost — in- 
deed, he shows more enthusiasm in his champion- 
ship of the feebler cause than on behalf of the tri- 
umphant. The fine character of the Princess, and the 
essential nobility of the cause which she advocates, 
are dwelt upon with the most fervent admiration ; 
and the choitest graces of his language are poured 
forth in the rehearsal of the beauty of the College 
and the sumptuousness of its institutions. A noble 
effort is riot to be treated with scorn because mis- 
directed. Earnest work, however mistaken, de- 
mands our reverence and sympathy. 

IV. THE CHARACTERS. 

The Prince's father, the "hard old king," repre- 
sents in his blunt violent manner the old-fashioned 
reghne, when women were women and knew their 
place, and before these fantastic notions of " equal 
rights" had begun to shake the pillars of domestic 
peace." To him women are beings essentially of 
another mould, not so distinctly inferior to men as 
altogether outside the sphere of comparison with 
them. He is not devoid of a certain rough respect 
for the sex, and speaks with affectionate pride of 



IV INTKODUCnoN. 

his dead wife. But it is monstrous that they should 
be allowed to play such ])ranks as these, taking it 
upon themselves to organize their lives after their 
own views of right and justice, and setting at defi- 
ance the arrangements of their betters — this must 
be checked at once, or what will become of the 
order of the universe ! 

To him a ridiculous contrast is afforded in the 
person of his brother- monarch of the south, with 
his timid diffident manner, and his painful anxiety 
to be pleasant. He is utterly incapable of enforc- 
ing his will in any respect, and is hghtly neglected 
by all his vigorous family, though he likes to chatter 
about his youth, and insists in his feeble way upo.n 
the respect due to his rank. The striking contrast 
presented by his physical insignificance and vacil- 
lating cast of mind to the gigantic bulk of Arac and 
and the intrepid energy of Ida, impress the lover 
of the latter with a strong conviction, corroborative 
of his lady's earnest advocacy of her cause, that the 
paramount factor in our composition is that which 
is derived from the mother. 

To the character of the Prince himself it has been 
objected that it is not sufficiently heroic, or even 
strongly marked, considering the important part he 
plays in the story. That this is no real blot upon 
the poem is well shown by Mr. Dawson: — "To 
bring out the Prince more strongly would have 
detracted from the unity of the poem. The Prin- 
cess is not overcome by him or by his merits. She 
is worsted by Nature — by the constituted order 
of things." Indeed, the poet would seem to have 
taken pains to insist upon the comparative weak- 
ness of this character. He must not be mean, of 
course, or in any way despicable, but it must be 



INTROUUCTION. V 

clearly shown that it was not the glamor of his 
physical or moral brilliance that won his lady from 
her isolation. His too emotional temperament and 
susceptibility to cataleptic seizures, added for the 
first time in the fourth edition of the poem, was 
probably intended to emphasize this point. At the 
same time it is plain that there was a further moral 
purpose for the introduction of this feature. For 
not only is the woman incomplete in herself, but, 
correspondingly, the man also cannot attain his full 
perfection until he has found his complement. 
Ida's womanhood is not developed till she has 
recognized the fallacy of her scheme of seclusion, 
and the Prince appeals to her to " accomplish his 
manhood " no less *' than herself " by yielding her 
heart to his. Henceforth he can declare 

" my doubts are dead, 
My haunting sense of hollow shows," 

and he is at peace with himself and with the 
world. It is noteworthy that his successive attacks 
correspond with those crises in the story at which 
his lady shows herself least feminine — when she 
stands in the full splendor of her triumphant posi- 
tion, with her foot upon the leopard — when she 
has scornfully cast him from the gates by the hands 
of her "monstrous woman-guard " — when she takes 
her stand " among the statues, statue-like," to watch 
with hard untender eyes her lover battling with her 
brother; nor does he finally "wake sane " until the 
long struggle in her is at an end, and, recognizing 
the folly of her fantastic theory, she has yielded to 
the pleadings of the true woman within her heart. 
And we may well believe that the repeated phrase 
in this connection — " all things were and were 
not" — is designed to indicate the half-truth that 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

pervades the " grand imaginations " of tiie fair en- 
thusiast ; for, had her cause been as ignoble as her 
methods were ridiculous, we could have felt no 
sympathetic interest in her story. 

The character of Cyril is an admirable study of 
vigorous, healthy common-sense, undisturbed by 
haunting fancies, unfettered by false modesty, and 
as clear-sighted as jovial. His sound knowledge 
of human nature is humorously demonstrated in his 
manner of dealing with the two Tutors — Psyche 
he appeases by a delicate comphment to her ability 
as a lecturer and an expression of admiration for 
her baby — Blanche he persuades to silence by an 
appeal to her ambition. The illustration of his 
moral temperament, superficially frivolous but sound 
at bottom, by reference to the water-lily, is one of 
the happiest similies in literature. 

The key-note to the character of the Lady Ida is 
to be found in the Prince's exclamation: — 

" True she errs, 
But in her own grand way : being herself 
Three times more noble than three score of men, 
She sees herself in every woman else, 
And so she wears her error like a crown 
To blind the truth and me." 

She is essentially earnest and devoted to her cause 
for its own sake ; nor can we doubt but that she 
would have gloriously justified at need her assever- 
ation that she would shrink from no personal sacri- 
fice which might promote the welfare of her darling 
purpose. Nor is her generous enthusiasm, which 
dazzles her lover, swells her brother's heart with 
pride, and commands even the respect of the 
Northern King, in any way the less admirable on 
account of the monstrous or ridiculous positions 



INTRODUCTION. VII 

into which she is occasionally forced by the burning 
indignation that dominates her or the honest mis- 
direction of her energies. 

In striking contrast to the unselfishness which 
pervades every moment of her life is presented the 
narrow jealous disposition of Lady Blanche. It has 
been well remarked that these two ladies stand 
respectively towards the College as do Brutus and 
Cassius in Shakespeare's Play towards the cause of 
the RepubHc. One had devoted her whole energies 
unreservedly towards the attainment of an end 
from which others should benefit — the other re- 
garded the Institution as a means for ignoble self- 
aggrandizement, and is willing to desert it when 
she conceives that her end may be more effectively 
secured elsewhere. Envious, self-centred, treacher- 
ous, she lacks even the redeeming feature of love 
for her child or respect for the memory of her dead 
husband. It is noteworthy, as Mr. Dawson re- 
marks, that she is " the one thoroughly repulsive 
woman in all Tennyson's works." 

Psyche has not the profound earnestness and 
majestic mien of her Chief, and is in consequence 
more immediately charming. She is, in fact, 
essentially feminine, both in heart and in manner. 
Her position at the College she invests with a 
certain prettiness that withdraws our attention from 
the lecture to the lecturer, but we feel that it is only 
an incidental episode in her Hfe, and her discovery 
of her brother lets loose the natural flow of those 
tender affections which later, at the loss of her 
child, are developed with almost tragic intensity. 

The minor characters, too, are very happily 
sketched. Arac, the " genial giant," with his 
splendid muscles, his healthy love of action, and 



VIM INTRODUCIION. 

his proud devotion to his sister — Florian, the 
Prince's ** other heart," a loyal friend and affec- 
tionate brother — Melissa, the maiden whose tender 
conscience cannot endure the shadow of deceit. 

But, if the importance of a character is to be 
estimated by the strength and far-reaching effect 
of its influence on those with whom it is associated, 
the real heroine of the poem is Aglaia. As Mr. 
Dawson says : — 

" Ridiculous in the lecture-room, the babe ... is 
made the central point upon which the plot turns; for the 
unconscious child is the concrete embodiment of Nature itself, 
clearing away all merely intellectual theories by her silent 
influence. Ida feels the power of the child. The postscript 
of the despatch sent to her brother in the height of her indig- 
nation, contains, as is fitting, the kernel of the matter. She 
says : — 

I took it for an hour in mine own bed 
This morning : there the tender orphan hands 
Felt at my heart, and seem'd to charm from thence 
The wrath I nursed against the world. 
Rash princess ! that fatal hour dashed 

' the hopes of half the world.' 
" Alas for these hopes ! The cause, the great cause, totters 
to the fall when the Head confesses — 

1 felt 
Thy helpless warmth about my barren breasf 
In the dead prime. 

Whenever the plot thickens the babe appears.' It is with I do 
on her judgment seat. In the topmost height of the storm the 
wail of ' the lost lamb at her feet ' reduces her eloquent anger 
into incoherence. She carries it when she sings her song 
of triumph. When she goes to tend her wounded brothers on 
the battle-field, she carries it. Through it, and for it, Cyril 
pleads his successful suit, and wins it for the mother. For its 
sake the mother is pardoned. O fatal babe ! more fatal to the 
hopes of woman than the doomful horse to the proud walls of 
Ilion — for through thee the walls of pride are breached, and 
all the conquering affections flock in." 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

\-. IHE SONGS. 

A few words will suffice to point out the bearing 
of the Songs upon the teaching of the Poem. For, 
though they may at first sight appear to be, in 
character as in origin, entirely unconnected with 
the main work, a closer examination will discover 
that they are intimately bound up with its central 
purpose. To this important point our attention is 
drawn by those lines in the Conclusion which tell 
how, in opposition to the " mock-heroic gigan- 
tesque " treatment which the men required, the 
women pleaded for a more serious tone : — 

" and perhaps they felt their power, 
For something in the ballads which they sang, 
Or in their silent influence as they sat, 
Had ever seeni'd to wrestle with burlesque, 
And drove us, last, to quite a solemn close." 

The key to the Interpretation of this Song- 
element is to be found in the fact that they all 
centre round the persistence of the affections, 
while four of the six bear special reference to the 
strengthening and purifying power of the love of 
children, thus reflecting the dominant purpose of 
the main work. 

In the first, a man and his wife have (quarrelled, 
and are reconciled over the grave of their dead 
child. The second tells of a man whose work keeps 
him far at sea, but whose thoughts are drawn home 
by his love for the child for whom he is laboring. 
The third dwells upon the contrast between the 
evanescent character of echoes in the physical 
world and the permanent and ever-widening sym- 
pathies of human hearts — the notes of the bugle 
sound across the lake, and faint and die ; those of 
human affection 



X INTRODUCTION. 

" roll from soul to soul, 
And grow forever and forever." 

Lilia's wild stirring strain emphasizes the vital truth 
that in all noble endeavors man's energy is inspired 
and his arm strengthened by the recollection of | 
those whom he loves. In the next we see how, I 
when all is wrapt in darkness and despair, it is the 
maternal instinct that can most forcibly survive to 
prolong an interest in life — this, be it noticed, the 
ninety years of her experience had taught the nurse, 
while tne young maiden failed to move her mistress 
by uncovering the face of her dead husband. And 
in the last we hear a cry of self-surrender that 
explains itself, bearing a more pertinent relation to 
the Canto which it precedes. 

It is interesting in this connection to read the 
following from a letter written by the Poet to Mr. 
Dawson in acknowledgment of the receipt of a 
copy of the latter's Study : - 

" I may tell you that the songs vi^ere not an after-thought. 
Before the first edition came out I deliberated with myself 
whether I ^Lould put songs in between the separate divisions of 
the poem. Again, I thought, the poem will explain itself; but 
the public did not see that the child, as you say, was the 
heroine of the piece, and at last I conquered my laziness and 
mseiFted th^'n.." 



THE PRINCESS; 

A MEDLEY. 



PROLOGUE. 

Sir Walter Vivian all a summer's day 

Gave his broad lawns until the set of sun 

Up to his people : thither flock'd at noon 

His tenants, wife and child, and thither half 

The neighboring borough with their histitute 5 

Of which he was the patron. I was there 

From college, visiting the son, — the son 

A Walter too, — with others of our set, 

Five others : we were seven at Vivian-place. 

And me that morning Walter show'd the house, ^° 
Greek, set with busts : from vases in the hall 
Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names, 
Grew side by side : and on the pavement lay 
Carved stones of the Abbey-ruin in the park. 
Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time ; ^s 



5- 
tute. 



Institute, an educational and social club called a Mechanics' Insti- 

Greek, of Grecian architecture. 
Names, i.e., their scientific names. 
Ammonites, fossil shells of mollusks (cuttle-fishes). 
first-bones, fossil-bones. 



6 IHE PRINCESS. 

And on the tables every clime and age 
Jumbled together; celts and calumets, 
Claymore and snowshoe, toys in lava, fans 
Of sandal, amber, ancient rosaries, 
Laborious orient ivory sphere in sphere, -"' 

The cursed Malayan crease, and battle clubs 
From the isles of palm : and higher on the walls, 
Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer, 
His own foreforthers' arms and armor hung. 

And " this " he said "was Hugh's at Agincourt ;2s 
And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon : 
A good knight he ! we keep a chronicle 
With all about him " — which he brought, and I 
Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knights. 
Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings -^-^ 

Who laid about them at their wills and died ; 
And mixed with these, a lady, one that arm'd 
Her own fair head, and sallying thro' the gate. 
Had beat her foes with slaughter from her walls. 

" O miracle of women," said the book, 35 

" O noble heart who, being strait-besieged 

17. celts, stone hatchets of the ancient- Danes. 

18. claymore, the two-handed sword of the Highlanders. 

20. sphere in sphere, carved Chinese ivory balls, one within another. 

21. crease, a large curved dagger. 

25. Agincourt, in France, where in 1415 Henry V. defeated the French. 

26. Ascalon, in Palestine, where in 1192 Richard I. defeated the Sara- 
cens under Saladin in one of the battles of the crusades. 

36. strait, hard. 



IHE PRINCESS. 7 

By this wild king to force her to his wish, 
Nor bent, nor broke, nor shunn'd a soldier's death, 
But now when all was lost or seem'd as lost — 
Her stature more than mortal in the burst 40 

Of sunrise, her arm lifted, eyes on fire — 
Brake with a blast of trumpets from the gate. 
And, falling on them like a thunderbolt. 
She trampled some beneath her horses' heels, 
And some were whelm'd with missiles of the wall,+5 
And some were push'd with lances from the rock. 
And part were drown'd within the whirling brook : 
O miracle of noble womanhood ! " 

So sang the gallant glorious chronicle ; 
And, I all rapt in this, "Come out," he said, 50 

"To the Abbey : there is Aunt Elizabeth 
And sister Lilia with the rest." We went 
(I kept the book and had my finger in it) 
Down thro' the park : strange was the sight to me ; 
For all the sloping pasture murmur'd sown 55 

With happy faces and with holiday. 
There moved the multitude, a thousand heads : 
The patient leaders of their Institute 
Taught them with facts. One rear'd a font of stone 
And drew, from butts of water on the slope, ^"^ 

The fountain of the moment, playing, now 
A twisted snake, and now a rain of pearls, 
Or steep-up spout whereon the gilded ball 

55. murmured, was full of voices; sown, besprinkled. 
63. steep-up, upright, perpendicular. 



8 THE PRINCESS. 

Danced like a wisp : and somewhat lower down 

A man with knobs and wires and vials fired ^s 

A cannon : Echo answer'd in her sleep 

From hollow fields : and here were telescopes 

For azure views ; and there a group of girls 

In circle waited, whom the electric shock 

DisHnk'd with shrieks and laughter : round the lake7o 

A little clock-work steamer paddling plied 

And shook the lilies : perch'd about the knolls 

A dozen angry models jetted steam : 

A pretty railway ran : a fire-balloon 

Rose gem-like up before the dusky groves 7S 

And dropt a fairy parachute and past : 

And there thro' twenty posts of telegraph 

They flash'd a saucy message to and fro 

Between the mimic stations ; so that sport 

Went hand in hand with Science ; otherwhere ^° 

Pure sport : a herd of boys with clamor bowl'd 

And stump'd the wicket ; babies roU'd about 

Like tumbled fruit in grass ; and men and maids 

Arranged a country dance, and flew thro' light' 

And shadow, while the twangling violin ^s 

Struck up with Soldier-laddie, and overhead 

The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime 

Made noise with bees and breeze from end to end. 

Strange was the sight and smacking of the time ; 

64. wisp, will-o'-the-wisp. 

82. stumped the wicket, played cricket. 

86. Soldier-laddie, a favorite Scotch tune. 

89. smacking of the time, typical of the age. 



THE PRINCESS. 9 

And long we gazed, but satiated at length 90 

Came to the ruins. High-arch'd and ivy-claspt, 

Of finest Gothic lighter than a fire, 

Thro' one wide chasm of time and frost they gave 

The park, the crowd, the house ; but all within 

The. sward was trim as any garden lawn : 95 

And here we lit on Aunt EHzabeth, 

And Lilia with the rest, and lady friends 

From neighbor seats : and there was Ralph himself, 

A broken statue propt against the wall. 

As gay as any. Lilia, wild with sport, ^°° 

Half child half woman as she was, had wound 

A scarf of orange round the stony helm, 

And robed the shoulders in a rosy silk, 

That made the old warrior from his ivied nook 

Glow like a sunbeam : near his tomb a feast ^°5 

Shone, silver-set ; about it lay the guests, 

And there we join'd them : then the maiden Aunt 

Took this fair day for text, and from it preach'd 

An universal culture for the crowd, 

And all things great ; but we, unworthier, told "° 

Of college : he had cHmb'd across the spikes. 

And he had squeezed himself betwixt the bars, 

And he had breathed the Proctor's dogs ; and one 

93. chasm, rent in the walls, gave, gave a view of. 
98. neighbor-seats, neighboring country residences. 
iiT. spikes, on the wall of the college gardens. 

112. bars, on the windows of the student's rooms, 

113. The Proctor is the University official charged with the super- 
intendence of discipline ; when on his rounds of inspection he is attended by 
servants, familiarly known as " bull-dogs," who at his orders pursue and 
arrest any undergraduate who will not obey his summons. Breathed, 
tired out with a long run; cf. a somewhat similar use in V. 306. 



lO IHE PRINCESS. 

Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men, 
But honeying at the whisper of a lord ; "S 

And one the Master, as a rogue in grain 
Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory. 

But while they talk'd, above their heads I saw 
The feudal warrior lady-clad ; which brought 
My book to mind : and opening this I read "° 

Of old Sir Ralph a page or two that rang 
With tilt and tourney ; then the tale of her 
That drove her foes with slaughter from her walls, 
And much I praised her nobleness, and *' Where," 
A-ked Walter, patting Lilia's head (she lay ''^s 

Beside him) "lives there such a woman now? " 

Quick answer'd Lilia " There are thousands now 
Such women, but convention beats them down : 
It is but bringing up ; no more than that : 
You men have done it : how I hate you all ! '30 

Ah, were I something great ! I wish I* were 
Some mighty poetess, I would shame you then, 
That love to keep us children ! O I wish 
That I were some great princess, I would build 
Far off from men a college like a man's, ^35 

And I would teach them all that men are taught ; 
We are twice as quick ! " And here she shook aside 
The hand that play'd the patron with her curls. 

115. honeying, becoming affable. 

128. convention, conventionality, custom. 



'IHE PRINCESS. II 

And one said smiling " Pretty were the sight 
If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt ^4° 
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, 
And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair. 
I think they should not wear our rusty gowns. 
But move as rich as Emperor-moths, or Ralph 
Who shines so in the corner ; yet I fear, ^45 

If there were many Lillias in the brood, 
However deep you might embowei the nest. 
Some boy would spy it." 

At this upon the sward 
She tapt her tiny silken-sandal'd foot : ^50 

"That's your light way ; but I would make it death 
For any male thing but to peep at us." 

Petulant she spoke, and at herself she laugh'd ; 
A rosebud set with little wilful thorns, 
And sweet as English air could make her, she : ^55 
But Walter hail'd a score of names upon her, 
And " petty Ogress," and "ungrateful Puss," 
And swore he long'd at college, only long'd, 
All else was well, for she-society. 
They boated and they cricketed ; they talk'd ^^° 
At wine, in clubs, of art, of politics ; 
They lost their weeks ; they vext the souls of deans ; 

140. halls, colleges 

141. dowagers, widows of noblemen, dean, officer of a college. 
T44. Emperor-moths, butterflies of beautiful coloring. 

162 They lost their weeks. At an English University residence for 
a certain number of Terms is necessary to render a student eligible for his 
Degree, and residence for a certain proportion of each Term reckoned by 
attendance at dinner) is necessary to enable him to " count " that term. 
The expression therefore denotes that they were irregular in their obser- 
vance of the College regulations concerning attendance, and consequently 
were unable to count certain weeks of their residence towards their 
Degrees. 



12 THE PRINCESS. 

They rode ; they betted ; made a hundred friends, 
And caught -the blossoms of the flying terms, 
But miss'd the mignonette of Vivian-place, 
The little hearth-flower Liiia. Thus he spoke, ^^s 
Part banter, part affection. 

" True," she said, 
"We doubt not that. O yes, you miss'd us much 
I'll stake my ruby ring upon it you did." 

She held it out ; and as a parrot turns 
Up thro' gilt wires a crafty loving eye, ^7° 

And takes a lady's finger with all care. 
And bites it for true heart and not for harm. 
So he with Liha's. Daintily she shriek'd 
And wrung it. " Doubt my word again ! " he said. 
" Come, listen ! here is proof that you were 
miss'd : 175 

We seven stay'd at Christmas up to read ; 
And there we took one tutor as to read : 
The hard-grained Muses of the cube and square 
Were out of season : never man, I think, 
So moulder'd in a sinecure as he : ^So 

For while our cloisters echo'd frosty feet 
And our long walks were stript as bare as brooms, 
We did but talk you over, pledge you all 

172. true-heart, affection. 

176. to read, to study. 

178. hard-grain'd Muses, mathematics. 

182. walks, avenues of trees. 

183. pledge in wassail, drink your health. 



THE PRINCESS. 1 3 

In wassail ; often, like as many girls — 

Sick for the hollies and the yews of home ^- ^^s 

As many little trifling Lilias — play'd 

Charades and riddles as at Christmas here, 

And whats my thought and when .and where and 

how, 
And often told a tale from mouth to mouth 
As here at Christmas." 

She remember'd that : ^9° 

A pleasant game she thought : she liked it more 
Than magic music, forfeits, all the rest. 
But these — what kind of tales did men tell men, 
She wonder'd, by themselves? 

A half-disdain 
Perch'd on the pouted blossom of her lips : ^9S 

And Walter nodded at me ; " He began. 
The rest would follow, each in turn ; and so 
We forged a sevenfold story. Kind ? what kind ? 
Chimeras, crotchets, Christmas solecisms. 
Seven-headed monsters only made to kill ^^^ 

Time by the fire in winter." 

" Kill him now. 
The tyrant ! kill him in the summer too," , 
Said Lilia ; " Why not now? " the maiden Aunt 

199. Chimeras. The Chimera of Greek Mythology \vas a monster 
having the head of a hon, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. 
Hence the word signifies in modern usage any grotesquely incongruous 
composition. Crotchets, perverse fancies, whimsical productions. 
Solecisms. This word is fancifully derived from the fact that the Athenian 
settlers at Soli, a town in Cilicia, lost the original purity of the Attic dia- 
lect. It thus denotes originally an impropriety in language, then, more 
loosely, any incongruity or inconsistency — here a ridiculous story, such 
as might naturally pass from mouth to mouth during the festivities of 
Christmas time. 



14 THE PRINCESS. 

" Why not a summer's as a winter's tale? 

A tale for summer as befits the time, ^^^ 

And something it should be to suit the place, • 

Heroic, for a hero lies beneath, 

Grave, solemn t" 

Walter warp'd his mouth at this 
To something so mock-solemn, that I laugh'd 
And Lilia woke with sudden-shrilling mirth -'° 

An echo like a ghostly woodpecker. 
Hid in the ruins ; till the maiden Aunt 
(A little sense of wrong had touch'd her face 
With color) turn'd to me with " As you will. 
Heroic if you will, or what you will, '■'^s 

Or be yourself your hero if you will." 

"Take Lilia, then, for heroine " clamor'd he, 
" And make her some great Princess, six feet high, 
Grand, epic, homicidal ; and be you 
The Prince to win her ! " 

" Then follow me, the Prince," ^2° 
I answer'd, " each be hero in his turn ! 
Seven and yet one, like shadows in a dream. — 
Heroic seems our Princess as required — 
But something made to suit with Time and place, 
A Gothic ruin and a Grecian house, -'^s 

A talk of college and of ladies' rights, 
A feudal knight in silken masquerade. 
And, yonder, shrieks and strange experiments 

204 winter's tale. The reference is to Shakespeare's play, "The 
Winter's Tale," 231 below. • 

208. warp'd, twisted. 



THE PRINCESS. 1 5 

For which the good Sir Ralph had burnt them all — 
This were a medley ! we should have him back ^30 
Who told the '' Winter's Tale " to do it for us. 
No matter : we will say whatever comes. 
And let the ladies sing us, if they will, 
From time to time, some ballad or a song 
To give us breathing-space." 

So I began, ^^s 

And the rest follow'd : and the women sang 
Between the rougher voices of the men, 
Like linnets in the pauses of the wind : 
And here I give the story and the songs. 

229. For which . . . burnt them all. The belief in witch-craft was 
universal in England during the Middle Ages, when the exercise of any new 
power or the pursuit of any mysterious study, especially if connected with 
Astrology, Chemistry, or any other obscure science, was held to indicate 
the existence of dealings with the Devil; the ordinary punishment for the 
offence was death by fire. 



Part I. 

A prince I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, 
Of temper amorous, as the first of May, 
With lengths of yellow ringlet, like a girl. 
For on my cradle shone the Northern star. 

There lived an ancient legend in our house. « 
Some sorcerer, whom a far-off grandsire burnt 
Because he cast no shadow, had foretold, 
Dying, that none of all our blood should know 
The shadow from the substance, and that one 
Should come to fight with shadows and to fall. '^° 
For so, my mother said, the story ran. 
And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, 
An old and strange affection of the house. 
Myself too had weird seizures, Heaven knows what : 
On a sudden, in the midst of men and day, ^s 

And while I walk'd and talk'd as heretofore, 
I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts, 
And feel myself the shadow of a dream. 
Our great court-Galen poised his gilt-head cane. 
And paw'd his beard, and mutter'd " catalepsy." ^° 

7. cast no shadow, a common belief in early times and considered a 
proof of complicity with the Evil One. 

19. Galen of Pergamus (130-209), the greatest medical authority of 
ancient times. His name is used as. a synonym for an eminent physician. 

16 



THE PRINCESS. 1 7 

My mother pitying made a thousand prayers'; 

My mother was as mild as any saint, 

Half-canonized by all that look'd on her, 

So gracious was her tact and tenderness : 

But my good father thought a king a king ; ^5 

He cared not for the affection of the house ; 

He held his sceptre like a pedant's wand 

To lash offence, and with long arms and hands 

Reach'd out, and pick'd offenders from the mass 

For judgment. 

Now it chanced that I had been 3° 
While life was yet in bud and blade, betroth'd 
To one, a neighboring Princess : she to me 
Was proxy-wedded with a bootless calf 
At eight years old ; and still from time to time 
Came murmurs of her beauty from the South, 3S 
And of her brethren, youths of puissance ; 
And still I wore her picture by my heart. 
And one dark tress ; and all around them both 
Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their 
queen. 

But when the days drew nigh that I should wed,4° 
My father sent ambassadors with furs 

23. Half-canonized, regarded as almost a saint. 

33. with a bootless calf refers to a ceremony occasionally observed 
during the Middle Ages in the celebration of proxy-marriages, according 
to which the bridegroom's representative was brought into the presence of 
the bride with the lower part of his leg b tre This was done in the case of 
the marriage of Maximilian of Austria with Anne of Brittany in 1489, of 
which ceremony an account is given by Bacon in his Life and Reign of 
King Henry VH. Strictly speaking, recourse was only had to this 
device in the case of adults, competent to consent and appoint and 
receive representatives, when it was not possible or convenient for the 
principals to meet in person. 



1 8 THE PRINCESS. 

And jewels, gifts, to fetch her : these brought back 
A present, a great labor of the loom ; 
And therewithal an answer vague as wind : 
Besides, they saw the king ; he took the gifts ; 4S 
He said there was a compact ; that was true : 
But then she had a will ; was he to blame ? 
And maiden fancies ; loved to live alone 
Among her women ; certain, would not wed. 

That morning in the presence room I stood so 
With Cyril and with Florian, my two friends : 
The first, a gentleman of broken means 
(His father's fault) but given to starts and bursts 
Of revel ; and the last, my other heart. 
And almost my half-self,' for still we moved 55 

Together, twinn'd as horse's ear and eye. 

Now, while they spake, I saw my father's face 
Grow long and troubled, like a rising moon, 
Inflamed with wrath : he started on his feet. 
Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and rent ^° 
The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof 
From skirt to skirt ; and at Jast he sware 
That he would send a hundred thousand men, _ 
And bring her in a whirlwind : then he chew'd 
The thrice-turn'd cud of wrath, and cook'd his 
spleen, 65 

Communing with his captains of the war. 

50. presence-room, hall of audience. 

65. cooked his spleen, nursed his wrath. The ancients believed that 
the spleen was the seat of wrath. 



THE PRINCESS. 1 9 

At last I spoke. " My father, let me go. 

It cannot be but some gross error lies 

In this report, this answer of a king. 

Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable : 7° 

Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen, 

Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame. 

May rue the bargain made." And Florian said : 

" I have a sister at the foreign court. 

Who moves about the Princess ; she, you know, 75 

Who wedded with a nobleman from thence : 

He, dying lately, left her, as I hear. 

The lady of three castles in that land : 

Thro' her this matter might be sifted clean." 

And Cyril whisper'd : " Take me with you too." ^° 

Then laughing, " what, if these weird seizures come 

Upon you in those lands, and no one near 

To point you out the shadow from the truth ! 

Take me, I'll serve you better in a strait ; 

I grate on rusty hinges here : " but " No ! " ^s 

Roar'd the rough "king, " you shall not ; we ourself 

Will crush her pretty maiden fancies dead 

In iron gauntlets : break the council up." 

But when the council broke, I rose and past 
Thro' the wild woods that hung about the town ; 9° 
Found a still place, and pluck'd her likeness out; 
Laid it on flowers, and watch'd it lying bathed 
In the green gleam of dewy-tassell'd trees : 
What were those fancies? wherefore break her 
troth? 



20 THE PRINCESS. 

Proud look'd the lips : but while I meditated 95 

A wind arose, and rush'd upon the South, 

And shook the songs, the whispers, and the shrieks 

Of the wild woods together ; and a Voice 

Went with it, ^' Follow, follow, thou shalt win." 

Then, ere the silver sickle of that month ^°° 

Became her golden shield, I stole from court 
With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived, 
Cat-footed thro' the town and half in dread 
To hear my father's clamor at our backs 
AVith Ho ! from some bay-window shake the night ; 
But all was quiet ; from the bastion'd walls ^°6 

Like threaded spiders, one by one, we dropt, 
And flying reach'd the frontier : then we crost 
To a livelier land ; and so by tilth and grange, 
And vines, and blowing bosks of wilderness, "° 

We gain'd the mother-city thick with towers, 
And in the imperial palace found the king. 

His name was Gama ; crack'd and small his voice, 
But bland the smile that hke a wrinkling wind 
On glassy water drove his cheek in lines ; ^^s 

A little. dry old man, without a star, 

loo-ioi. silver-sickle, new moon, golden shield, full moon. 

io6. Bastion'd fortified. 

tog. tilth, tilled land; grange, farmhouses. 

no. blowing bosks, flowering bushes, underbrush. 

III. Mother-city, capital town. 

ii6. Without a star, with no appearances or symbols of royalty. 



THE PRINCESS, 2 1 

Not like a king ; three days he feasted us, 

And on the fourth I spake of why we came, 

And my betroth'd. " You do us, Prince," he said, 

Airing a snowy hand and signet gem, ^^o 

^' All honor. We remember love ourselves 

In our sweet youth : there did a compact pass 

Long summers back, a kind of ceremony — 

I think the year in which our olives fail'd. 

I would you had her. Prince, with all my heart, . ^^5 

With my full heart : but there were widows here. 

Two widows, Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche ; 

They fed her theories, in and out of place. 

Maintaining that with equal husbandry 

The woman were an equal to the man. ^30 

They harp'd on this : with this our banquets rang ; 

Our dances broke and buzz'd in knots of talk; 

Nothing but this ; my very ears were hot 

To hear them : knowledge, so my daughter held. 

Was all in all ; they had but been, she thought, ^35 

As children ; they must lose the child, assume 

The woman ; then. Sir, awful odes she wrote, 

Too awful, sure, for what they treated of, 

But all she is and does is awful ; odes 

About this losing of the child ; and rhymes ^40 

i34~i35- knowledge . . all in all. This fallacy, upon which is based 
the fore-doomed scheme of the Princess for the betterment of woman's 
position, is one upon which Tennyson has expressed himself with great 
vehemence and earnestness in several passages throughout his works. 
Knowledge, he teaches, is good, but it is not the best. The best is 
Wisdom Mere knowledge is brutal and overweening; Wisdom is reverent 
and serene. — Wallace. 

136-137. lose the child, assume the woman, put off their meek sub- 
missiveness and claim the rights of mature beings able to think and act for 
themselves. 



2 2 THE PRINCESS. 

And dismal lyrics, prophesying change 

Beyond all reason : these the women sang ; 

And they that know such things — I sought but 

peace ; 
No critic I — would call them masterpieces : 
They mastered me. At last she begg'd a boon, ^45 
A certain summer palace which I have 
Hard by your father's frontier : I said no, 
Yet being an easy man, gave it : and there, 
All wild to found an University 
For maidens, on the spur she fled ; and more ^5° 
We know not, — only this : they see no men. 
Not ev'n her brother Arac, nor the twins 
Her brethren, tho' they love her, look upon her 
As on a kind of paragon ; and I 
(Pardon me saying it) were much loth to breed ^ss 
Dispute betwixt myself and mine : but since 
(And I confess with right) you think me bound 
In some sort, I can give you letters to her ; 
And yet, to speak the truth, I rate your chance 
Almost at naked nothing." '60 

Thus the king; 
And I, tho' nettled that he seem'd to slur 
With garrulous ease and oily courtesies 
Our formal compact, yet, not less (all frets 
But chafing me on fire to find my bride) 
Went forth again with both my friends. We rode ^^s 
Many a long league back to the North. At last 

158. In some sort, to some extent. 
163. frets, hindrances, impediments. 



'J HE PRINCESS. 23 

From hills, that look'd across a land of hope 

We dropt with evening on a rustic town 

Set in a gleaming river's crescent-curve, 

Close at the boundary of the liberties ; ^70 

There, enter'd an old hostel, call'd mine host 

To council, plied him with his richest wines, 

And show'd the late-writ letters of the king. 

He, with a long low sibilation, stared 
As blank as death in marble ; then exclaim'd ^7s 
Averring it was clear against all rules 
For any man to go : but as his brain 
Began to mellow, '' If the king," he said, 
" Had given us letters, was he bound to speak ? 
The king would bear him out ;" and at the last — ^^° 
The summer of the vine in all his veins — 
" No doubt that we might make it worth his while. 
She once had past that way ; he heard her speak ; 
She scared him ; life ! he never saw the like ; 
She look'd as grand as doomsday and as grave : ^^5 
And he, he reverenced his liege-lady there ; 
He always made a point to post with mares ; 

167. A land of hope, because it contained that for which he hoped, i.e., 
the Princess. 

170. the liberties, an English legal term for the grounds of the college, 
over which the Princess had been given possession by her father. 

171. hostel, tavern, hostelry. 
174. sibilation, whistle. 

179. speak, report our arrival to the Princess 

180. bear him out, support him. 

181. the summer of the vine, etc., under the influence of the wine. 
187. to post, to run his coaches. 



24 JHE PRINCESS. 

His daughter and his housemaid were the boys : 
The land, he understood, for miles about 
Was till'd by women ; all the swine were sows, ^9° 
And all the dogs " — 

But while he jested thus, 
A thought flash'd thro' me which I clothed in act, 
Remembering how we three presented Maid 
Or Nymph, or Goddess, at high tide of feast. 
In masque or pageant at my father's court. ^95 

We sent mine host to purchase female gear ; 
He bought it, and himself, a sight to shake 
The midriff of despair with laughter, holp 
To lace us up, till, each, in maiden plumes 
We rustled : him we gave a costly bribe ^°° 

To guerdon silence, mounted our good steeds, 
And boldly ventured on the liberties. 

We followed up the river as we rode. 
And rode till midnight when the college lights 
Began to glitter firefly-like in copse ^°5 

And linden alley : then we past an arch, 

i88. boys, postilions, post-boys, 

194. tide, season 

195. The masque was an allegorical occasional piece, generally 
designed for a special festival at the Court, or some other scene of import- 
ance, and produced with splendid circumstances of scenery, dresses, and 
music. The pageant was a gorgeous spectacular performance. Dramatic 
exhibitions of various kinds, amateur as well as professional, have always 
been a favorite form of entertainment in the various countries of Europe. 

198. holp, helped. 

201. guerdon, reward. 

206. linden alley, avenue of linden trees. 



THE PRINCESS. 2$ 

Whereon a woman-statue rose with wings 

From four wing'd horses dark against the stars. 

And some inscription ran along the front, 

But deep in shadow : further on we gain'd ^^° 

A Httle street half garden and half house ; 

But scarce could hear each other speak for noise 

Of clocks and chimes, like silver hammers falling 

On silver anvils, and the splash and stir 

Of fountains spouted up and showering down ^^s 

In meshes of the jasmine and the rose : 

And all about us peal'd the nightingale, 

Rapt in her song, and careless of the snare. 

There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign. 
By two sphere lamps blazon'd like Heaven and 

Earth 
With constellation and with continent. 
Above an entry : riding in, we call'd ; 
A plump-arm'd Ostleress and a stable wench 
Came running at the call, and help'd us down. 
Then stept a buxom hostess forth, and sail'd, ^^s 
Full-blown, before us into rooms which gave 
Upon a pillar'd porch, the bases lost 
In laurel : her we ask'd of that and this, 
And who were tutors. " Lady Blanche," she said, 

219. Pallas, in Greek mythology, goddess of wisdom 

220. blazoned, pictured. 

226. gave, opened. 

229. tutors. At a Cambridge College every student is placed under the 
care of one or other of the resident Fellows, who is called his Tutor, and 
advises him about his work, controls his expenditure, etc. 



2 6 THE PRINCESS. 

•' And Lady Psyche." " Which was prettiest, ^30 
Best-natured ? " '' Lady Psyche." " Hers are we," 
One voice, we cried ; and I sat down and wrote, 
In such a hand as when a field of corn 
Bows all its ears before the roaring East ; 

'' Three ladies of the Northern empire pray ^ -S 

Your Highness would enroll them with your own. 
As Lady Psyche's pupils." 

This I se-al'd : 
The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll, 
And o'er his head Uranian Venus hung. 
And raised the blinding bandage from his eyes : ^^° 
I gave the letter to be sent with dawn ; 
And then to bed, .where half in doze I seem'd 
To float about a glimmering night, and watch - 
A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight, swell 
On some dark shore just seen that it was rich. ^45 

233-234. In such a hand, etc , z ^., with the lines of the letters long and 
thin and sloping regularly. Women in those days affected a very slanting 
style of writing. 

238-240. The seal was Cupid . . . from his eyes. The seal is sig- 
nificant. The reference is to Plato's romantic Dialogue, The Symposium 
(Drinking Party), in the course of which Pausanias, one of the charac- 
ters, explains that there are two kinds of Love — one the Heavenly 
C' Uranian ") Love, the pure, spiritual emotion, the other Gross or 
Common Love Cupid, the son of the latter, is traditionally blind, that 
is, passionate without reason or discrimination; this defect Heavenly 
Love is represented on the Prmce's seal as removing through her calm 
and purifying influence. 



Part II. 

As thro' the land at eve we went, 

And pluck'd the ripen'd ears, 
We fell out, my wife and I, 
O we fell out I know not why, 

And kiss'd again with tears. 
And blessings on the falling out 

That all the more endears, 
When we fall out with those we love 

And kiss again with tears ! 
For when we came where lies the child 

We lost in other years. 
There above the little grave, 
O there above the little grave, 

We kiss'd again with tears. 



27 




At break of day the College Portress came : 

She brought us Academic silks, in hue 

The lilac, with a silken hood to each. 

And zoned with gold ; and now when these were on, 

And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, s 

She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know 

The Princess Ida waited ; out we paced, 

I first, and following thro' the porch that sang 

All round with laurel, issued in a court 

Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths ^° 

Of classic frieze, with ample awnings gay 

Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers. 

The Muses and the Graces, group'd in threes, 

Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst ; 

And here and there on lattice edges lay ^5 

Or book or lute ; but hastily we past. 

And up a flight of stairs into the hall. 

2. Academic silks. The college gowns. 

8. sang, murmuring of the leaves. 

9 compact, strongly built; lucid, shining. 

ID. boss'd, carved in relief, sculptured. 

13. The nine Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, 
They presided over the departments of poetry, art and science. They 
were Cho, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, 
Urania, and Calliope. The three Graces, types of female beauty and 
refinement, were Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia. 

28 



THE PRINCESS. 29 

There at a board by tome and paper sat, 
With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne, 
All beauty compass'd in a female form, 2° 

The Princess ; liker to the inhabitant 
Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, 
Than our man's earth ; such eyes were in her head, 
x^nd so much grace and power, breathing down 
From over her arch'd brows, with every turn =5 

Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands. 
And to her feet. She rose her height, and said : 

" We give you welcome : not without redound 
Of use and glory to yourselves ye come. 
The first-fruits of the stranger : aftertime, 3° 

And that full voice which circles round the grave. 
Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me. 
What ! are the ladies of your land so tall? " 
" We of the court," said Cyril. '^ From the court," 
She answer'd, ''then ye know the Prince ?" and he : 35 
" The climax of his age ! as tho' there were 
One rose in all the world, your highness that. 
He worships your ideal : " she replied : 
" We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear 
This barren verbiage, current among men, 40 

Light coin, the tinsel cHnk of compliment. 
Your flight from put your bookless wilds would seem 

30 The first-fruits of the stranger, the first sudents from another 
country. 

31. full voice, fame. 

38 your ideal, his ideal, or dream of you. 

40. verbiage, wordiness. 



30 THE PRINCESS. 

As arguing love of knowledge and of power ; 
Your language proves you still the child. Indeed, 
We dream not of him : when we set our hand 45 
To this great work, we purposed with ourself 
Never to wed. You likewise will do well, 
Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling 
The tricks, which make us toys of men, that so. 
Some future time, if so indeed you will, 50 

You may with those self-styled our lords ally 
Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scalfe with scale." 

At those high words, we, conscious of ourselves. 
Perused the matting ; then an officer 
Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these : ss 
Not for three years to correspond with home ; 
Not for three years to cross the liberties ; 
Not for three years to speak with any men; 
And many more, which hastily subscribed. 
We enter'd on the boards : and " Now," she cried, ^° 
" Ye are green wood, see ye warp not. Look, our 

hall! 
Our statues ! — not of those that men desire, 
Sleek Odalisques, or oracles of mode. 
Nor stunted squaws of West or East; but she 
That taught the Sabine how to rule, and she ^s 

43. arguing, implying. 

53. conscious of ourselves, aware of our disguise. 

60. entered on the boards, registered as undergraduates 

63. Odalisques, female slaves in a Turkish harem; mode, fashion. 

64-65. she ... to rule. Egeria, a wood-nymph, to whom NumaPompi- 
Iius, the second king of Rome, is said to have betaken himself for instruc- 
tion. He was a Sabine by birth, of the town of Ceyres. 



THE PRINCESS. 3 I 

The foundress of the Babylonian wall, 

The Carian Artemisia strong in war, 

The Rhodope, that built the pyramid, 

Clelia, Cornelia, with Palmyrene 

That fought Aurelian, and the Roman brows 7° 

Of Agrippina. Dwell with these, and lose 

Convention, since to look on noble forms 



65-66. she . . . Babylonian wall. Semiramis, wife of Ninus, a legend- 
ary personage, to whom are ascribed innumerable marvelous deeds and 
heroic achievements. The gigantic city of Babylon is only one of many 
that she is said to have built. She is supposed to have lived about B C. 
2182. 

67. The Carian ... in war. Queen of Halicarnassus, attached herself 
to the Expedition which Xerxes lead against Greece in B.C. 480. In the 
battle of Salamis she displayed signal courage and energy. 

68. The Rhodope . . . pyramid. The structure in question was really 
the work of another woman, Nicotris, sister and wife of Mycerinus (who 
himself began the erection, but died before its completion) ; it was, how- 
ever, generally attributed in ancient times, and even after the exposure of 
the falseness of the story to Rhodopis. 

69. Clelia was a Roman girl, one of the hostages given to Lars 
Porsena, King of Clusium, during his investment of Rome on behalf of 
the expelled Tarquins. She is said to have escaped from the camp and 
swum across the Tiber back to .Rome. Cornelia was the dauuhter of 
Scipio Africanus, the great Roman general, and the mother of the famous 
Tribunes and reformers of the Constitution, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. 
She was a noble, refined and cultured lady, and one whom we may regard 
as an ideal Roman matron . She died about b.c iio. 

69-70. the Palmyrene That fought Aurelian. This was Zenobia, 
who succeeded to the throne of Palmyra on the death of her husband, 
Odenathus. She was a woman of vehement energy and ambition, and for 
a long time defied with success the tfforts of the Emperor Aurelian to 
conquer her dominions. She was ultimately defeated, captured, and 
taken to Rome (a.d. 274). 

70-71. The Roman brows Of Agrippina. This lady, the grand- 
daughter of the Emperor Augustus and the wife of his general, Germani- 
cus, was another typical Roman matron, cultured, courageous, and 
devoted to her husband and family. She died a.d. 33. 

72. convention, conventionality. 



32 THE PRINCESS. 

Makes noble, thro' the sensuous organism 

That which is higher. O lift your natures up : 

Embrace our aims : work out your freedom. Girls,75 

Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal'd : 

Drink deep, until the habits of the slave, 

The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite 

And slander, die. Better not be at all 

Than not be noble. Leave us : you may go : ^° 

To-day the Lady Psyche will harangue 

The fresh arrivals of the week before ; 

For they press in from all the provinces, 

And fill the hive." 

She spoke, and bowing waved 
Dismissal : back again we crost the court ^5 

To Lady Psyche's : as we enter'd in, 
There sat along the forms, like morning doves 
That sun their milky bosoms on the thatch, 
A patient range of pupils ; she herself 
Erect behind a desk of satin-wood, 90 

A quick brunette, well-moulded, falcon-eyed. 
And on the hither side, or so she look'd. 
Of twenty summers. At her left, a child. 
In shining draperies, headed like a star. 
Her maiden babe, a double April old, 95 

Aglaia slept. We sat : the Lady glanced : 

92. The hither side, this side. 

94. headed like a star, with bright golden hair. 

95. a double April old, two years old. 

96. Aglaia, " Brightness," the name of one of the Graces. 



IHE PRINCESS. 33 

Then Florian, but no livelier than the dame 
That whisper'd ^' Asses' ears " among the sedge, 
" My sister." " Comely, too, by all that's fair," 
Said Cyril. •* O hush, hush !" and she began. ^°° 

" This world was once a fluid haze of light. 
Till toward the centre set the starry tides, 
And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast 
The planets : then the monster, then the man ; 
Tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins, "s 

Raw from th.e prime, and crushing down his mate ; 
As yet we find in barbarous isles, and here 
Among the lowest." 

Thereupon she took 
A bird's-eye view of all the ungracious past ; 
Glanced at the legendary Amazon "° 

As emblematic of a nobler age ; 
Appraised the Lycian custom, spoke of those 



97-98. the dame . . . the sedge. The reference is to the story of 
Midas, the rich King of Phrygia. Apollo turned his ears into those of an ass. 
Midas did his utmost to conceal the deformity, but his wife discovered the 
secret, and, not daring to betray it to any other human being, but unable 
to keep it to herself, whispered it into a hole in the ground; whence after- 
wards grew up a reed which in its whispers betrayed the secret to the 
world at large. 

101-104. A summary of the " Nebular Hypothesis." 

105. woaded, painted, stained with woad, a plant from the leaves of 
which the ancient Britons made a blue dye. 

106. Raw from the prime, undeveloped, uncivilized. 

no. the legendary Amazon, a nation of female warriors of Asia 
Minor. 

112. appraised, spoke of the merits of. 

the Lycian custom, that of tracing ancestry through the female 
instead of the male line. 



34 THE PRINCESS. 

That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo ; 

Ran down the Persian, Grecian, Roman lines 

Of empire, and the woman's state in each, "s 

How far from just; till warming with her theme 

She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique 

And Httle-footed China, toucK'd on Mahomet 

With much contempt, and came to chivalry : 

When some respect, however slight, was paid ^^^ 

To woman, superstition all awry : 

However then commenced the dawn : a beam 

Had slanted forward, falling in a land 

Of promise ; fruit would follow. Deep, indeed. 

Their debt of thanks to her who first had dared '^s 

To leap the rotten pales of prejudice, 

Disyoke their necks from custom, and assert 

None lordlier than themselves but that which made 

Woman and man. She had founded ; they must 

build. 
Here might they learn whatever men were taught : ^^° 
Let them not fear ; some said their^eads were less ; 
Some men's were small ; not they the least of men ; 
For often fineness compensated size : 
Besides the brain was like the hand, and grew 

113. In Etruscan wall-paintings, the men and women are represented 
as feasting together. Lar, Lucumo, titles of honor borne by the 
Etruscan priests and nobles. 

117. fulmined, thundered. 

laws Salique, the French law forbidding inheritance to pass 
through the female line. 

118. It was popularly believed that Mahomet denied that women had 
souls. 

126. pales, bounds. 



THE PRINCESS. 35 

With using ; thence the man's, if more was more ; ^35 

He took advantage of his strength to be 

First in the field : some ages had been lost ; 

But woman ripen'd earlier, and her life 

Was longer ; and albeit their glorious names 

Were fewer, scatter'd stars, yet since in truth ^-^^ 

The highest is the measure of the man, 

And not the Kaffir, Hottentot, Malay, 

Nor those horn-handed breakers of the glebe, 

But Homer, Plato, Verulam ; even so 

With woman : and in arts of government ^45 

Elizabeth and others ; arts of war. 

The peasant Joan and others ; arts of grace 

Sappho and others vied with any man : 

And, last not least, she who had left her place. 

And bow'd her state to them, that they might grow 

To use and power on this Oasis, lapt ^51 

In the arms of leisure, sacred from the blight 

Of ancient influence and scorn. 

At last 
She rose upon a wind of prophecy 
Dilating on the future ; " everywhere ^55 

13s if more were more, if a larger brain did really imply a more pow- 
erful intellect. 

143. glebe, earth. 

144. Verulam, Bacon. Verulam was the title of the barony conferred 
upon Bacon. 

146. Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth of England, (1558-1603.) 

147. Joan, Joan of Arc (1412-1431.) 

148. Sappho, a lyric poetess of Greece. 

149. place, her royal station. 



36 THE PRINCESS. 

Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, 

Two in the tangled business of the world, 

Two in the liberal offices of life, 

Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss 

Of science, and the secrets of the mind : ^^ 

Musician, painter, sculptor, critic, more : 

And everywhere the broad and bounteous Earth 

Should bear a double growth of those rare souls. 

Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world." 

She ended here, and beckon'd us : the rest ^^s 
Parted ; and, glowing full-faced welcome, she 
Began to address us, and was moving on 
In congratulation, till as when a boat 
Tacks, and the slacken'd sail flaps, all her voice 
Faltering and fluttering in her throat, she cried, ^70 
"My brother ! " " Well, my sister." " O," she said, 
" What do you here? and in this dress? and these? 
Why who are these ? a wolf within the fold ! 
A pack of wolves ! the Lord be gracious to me ! 
A plot, a plot, a plot, to ruin all ! " ^75 

" No plot, no plot," he answer'd. " Wretched boy, 
How saw you not the inscription on the gate, 
Let no man enter in on pain of death?" 
" And if I had," he answer'd, " who could think 
The softer Adams of your Academe, ^^° 

O sister. Sirens tho' they be, were such 

' 166. parted, departed. 
168. gratulation, congratulation. 

180. the softer Adams, the women founders. 

181. Sirens, sea-nymphs who, by their singing, led sailors to ship- 
wreck on the rocks of their island. 



^JHE PRINCESS. 37 

As chanted on the blanching bones of men? " 

'' But you will find it otherwise," she said. 

"You jest : ill jesting with edge-tools ! my vow 

Binds me to speak, and O that iron will, ^85 

That axelike edge unturnable, our Head, 

The Princess." " Well then. Psyche, take my life, 

x\nd nail me like a weasel on a grange 

For warning : bury me beside the gate. 

And cut this epitaph above my bones ; ^90 

Here lies a brother by a sister slain, 

All for the common good of wofnankind.'^ 

"Let me die too," said Cyril, " having seen 

And heard the Lady Psyche." 

I struck in : 
" Albeit so mask'd, Madam, I love the truth ; 295 
Receive it ; and in me behold the Prince 
Your countryman, affianced years ago 
To the Lady Ida : here, for here she was. 
And thus (what other way was left) I came." 
" O Sir, O Prince, I have no country ; none ; 2°° 
If any, this ; but none. Whate'er I was 
Disrooted, what I am is grafted here. 
Affianced, Sir? love-whispers may not breathe 
Within this vestal limit, and how should I, 
Who am not mine, say, live : the thunderbolt -°5 
Hangs silent ; but prepare : I speak ; it falls." 

189. grange, barn, granary. 

204. vestal-limit, virgin walls; vestal from Vesta, a Roman goddess, 
to whose service only maidens of blameless life were consecrated. 

205. the thunderbolt, your doom. 

205. not mine, i.e., subject to the will of the Princess. 



38 THE PRINCESS. 

" Yet pause," I said : *' for that inscription there, 

I think no more of deadly lurks therein, 

Than in a clapper clapping in a garth. 

To scare the fowl from fruit : if more there be, 2^° 

If more and acted on, what follows? war; 

Your own work marr'd : for this your Academe, 

Whichever side be Victor, in the halloo 

Will topple to the trumpet down, and pass 

With all the fair theories only made to gild ^'s 

A stormless summer." " Let the Princess judge 

Of that " she said : " farewell. Sir — and to you. 

I shudder at the sequel, but I go." 

"Are you that Lady Psyche," I rejoin'd, 
''The fifth in line from that old Florian, =2° 

Yet hangs his portrait in my father's hall 
(The gaunt old Baron with his beetle brow 
Sun-shaded in the heat of dusty fights) 
As he bestrode my Grandsire, when he fell. 
And all else fled ? we point to it, and we say, =^5 
* The loyal warmth of Florian is not cold 
But branches current yet in kindred veins.' " 
" Are you that Psyche," Florian added ; '' she 
With whom I sang about the morning hills, 
Flung ball, flew kite, and raced the purple fly, ^30 
And snared the squirrel of the glen? are you 

209. clapper, a small windmill, which, when turned, makes a clapping 
sound; a scare-crow 

garth, an enclosure. 
213. in the halloo, turmoil. 
224. bestrode, stood over to defend. 
227. current, flowing. 



THE PRINCESS. 39 

That Psyche, wont to bind my throbbing brow, 

To smoothe my pillow, mix the foaming draught 

Of fever, tell me pleasant tales, and read 

My sickness down to happy dreams? are you ^35 

That brother-sister Psyche, both in one? 

You were that Psyche, but what are you now? " 

* You are that Psyche," Cyril said, " for whom 

I would be that forever which I seem, 

Woman, if I might sit beside your feet, ^4° 

And glean your scatter'd sapience." 

Then once more, 
"Are you that Lady Psyche," I began, 
" That on her bridal morn before she past 
From all her old companions, when the king 
Kiss'd her pale cheek, declared that ancient ties ^45 
Would still be dear beyond the southern hills ; 
That were there any of our people there 
In want or peril, there was one to hear 
And help them? look ! for such are these and I." 
" Are you that Psyche," Florian ask'd, " to whom, .^so 
In gentler days, your arrow-wounded fawn 
Came flying while you sat beside the well? 
The creature laid his muzzle on your lap. 
And sobb'd, and you sobb'd with it, and the blood 
Was sprinkled on your kirtle, and you wept. ^55 

That was fawn's blood, not brother's, yet you wept. 
O by the bright head of my little niece, 
You were that Psyche, and what are you now? " 

241. sapience, wisdom. 
255. kirtle, gown. 



40 'I'HE PRINCESS. 

"You are that Psyche," Cyril said again, 

'' The mother of the sweetest little maid, '^" 

That ever crow'd for kisses." 

" Out upon it ! " 
She answer'd, " peace ! and why should I not play 
The Spartan Mother with emotion, be 
The Lucius Junius Brutus of my kind ? 
Him you call great : he for the common weal, ^^s 
The fading politics of mortal Rome, 
As I might slay this child, if good need were, 
Slew both his sons : and I, shall I, on whom 
The secular emancipation turns 
Of half this world, be swerved from right to save ^7° 
A prince, a brother ? a little will I yield. 
Best so, perchance, for us, and well for you. 
O hard, when love and duty clash ! I fear 
My conscience will not count me fieckless ; yet — 
Hear my conditions : promise (otherwise "75 

You perish) as you came, to slip away 
To-day, to-morrow, soon : it shall be said, 
These women were too barbarous, would not learn ; 
They fled, who might have shamed us : promise, 
all." 



262-263. play . . . wi h emotion, crush out for the public good all 
natural affection, a duty sternly inculcated among the ancient Spartans 

265-271 Hirn you call great ... a brother? Lucius Junius Brutus, 
elected Consul in b.c. 509, upon the expulsion of the Tarquins, was so 
determined to maintain the freedom of the infant Republic committed to 
his charge that, having detected his two sons in a conspiracy with other 
young nobles to restore the banished dvnasty, he did not hesitate to order 
them to execution. 



THE PRINCESS. 4 1 

What could we else, we promised each ; and 
she, 280 

Like some wild creature newly caged, commenced 
A to-and-fro, so pacing till she paused 
By Florian; holding out her lily arms 
Took both his hands, and smiling faintly said : 
" I knew you at the first : tho' you have grown ^^s 
You scarce have alter'd : I am sad and glad 
To see you, Florian. 7 give thee to death 
My brother ! it was duty spoke, not I. 
My needful seeming harshness, pardon it. 
Our mother, is she well? " 

With that she kiss'd -9° 
His forehead, then, a moment after, clung 
About him, and betwixt them blossom'd up 
From out a common vein of memory 
Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth. 
And far allusion, till the gracious dews *95 

Began to glisten and to fall : and while 
They stood, so rapt, we gazing, came a voice, 
" I brought a message here from Lady Blanche." 
Back started she, and turning round we saw 
The Lady Blanche's daughter where she stood, 300 
Melissa, with her hand upon the lock, 
A rosy blonde, and in a college gown, 
That clad her like an April daffodilly 
(Her mother's color) with her lips apart. 
And all her thoughts as fair within her eyes, 305 

304. her mother's color, the colors worn by the pupils of Lady 
Blanche. 

305. fair, clearly seen. 



42 THE PRINCESS. 

As bottom agates seem to wave and float 
In crystal currents of clear morning seas. 

So stood that same fair creature at the door. 
Then Lady Psyche, " Ah — Melissa — you ! 
You heard us ! " and Melissa, " O pardon me, 310 
I heard, I could not help it, did not wish : 
But, dearest Lady, pray you fear me not. 
Nor think I bear that heart within my breast, 
To give three gallant gentlemen to death." 
^' I trust you," said the other, *' for we two 315 

Were always friends, none closer, elm and vine : 
But yet your mother's jealous temperament — 
Let not your prudence, dearest, drowse, or prove 
The Danai'd of a leaky vase, for fear 
This whole foundation ruin, and I lose 32° 

My honor, these their lives." " Ah, fear me not " 
Replied Melissa; ''no — I would not tell. 
No, not for all Aspasia's cleverness. 
No, not to answer. Madam, all those hard things 
That Sheba came to ask of Solomon." 325 

" Be it so " the other, " that we still may lead 
The new light up, and culminate in peace, 
For Solomon may come to Sheba yet." 
Said Cyril, " Madam, he the wisest man 
Feasted the woman wisest then, in halls 330 

318-319. prove . . . vase. The Danaids, daughters of Danaus, King 
Argos, having murdered their husbands, sons of ^gyptus, were punished 
in Hades by condemnation to carry water in sieves. The expression 
therefore means " be found unable to keep your secret," " let it slip from 
you." 

323- Aspasia was the most accomplished woman in Athens during the 
height of that city's prosperity under the government of Pericles, (b. c, 
440.) 



THE PRINCESS. 43 

Of Lebanonian cedar : nor should you 

(Tho' Madam, you should answer, we would ask) 

Less welcome find among us, if you came 

Among us, debtors for our lives to you, 

Myself for something more." He said not what 335 

But "Thanks," she answer'd '^ Go : we have been too 

long 
Together : keep your hoods about the face ; 
They do so that affect abstraction here. 
Speak little ; mix not with the rest ; and hold * 

Your promise : all, I trust, may yet be well." 340 

We turn'd to go, but Cyril took the child, 
And held her round the knees against his waist, 
And blew the swoll'n cheek of a trumpeter. 
While Psyche watch'd them, smiling, and the child 
Push'd her flat hand against his face and laugh'd ; 345 
And thus our conference closed. 

And then we stroll'd 
For half the day thro' stately theatres 
Bench'd crescent-wise. In each we sat, we heard 
The grave Professor. On the lecture slate 
The circle rounded under female hands 350 

With flawless demonstration : follow'd then 
A classic lecture, rich in sentiment. 
With scraps of thundrous Epic lilted out 

331. Lebanonian cedar. Lebanon in Palestine was famous for its 
cedars, and from this locality Solomon procured the supply for his splen- 
did buildings. 

335. something more. Cyril's awakened love for Psyche. 

347. theaters, lecture-halls with rows of seats in semicircles. 

349 lecture slate, blackboard 

353. lilted, declaimed in a feminine voice. 



360 



365 



44 I HE PRINCESS. 

By violet-hooded Doctors, elegies 
And quoted odes, and jewels five-words-long 
That on the stretch'd forefinger of all Time 
Sparkle for ever : then we dipt in all 
That treats of whatsoever is, the state, 
The total chronicles of. man, the mind, 
The morals, something of the frame, the rock. 
The star, the bird, the fish, the shell, the flower. 
Electric, chemic laws, and all the rest, 
And whatsoever can be taught and known ; 
Till like three horses that have broken fence. 
And glutted all night long breast-deep in corn. 
We issued gorged with knowledge, and I spoke : 
"Why, Sirs, they do all this as well as we." 
"They hunt old trails " said Cyril, " very well ; 
But when did woman ever yet invent? " 
"Ungracious!" answer'd Florian ; "have you 
learnt 370 

No more from Psyche's lecture, you that talk'd 
The trash that made me sick, and almost sad? " 
" O trash " he said, " but with a kernel in it. 
Should I not call her wise, who made me wise ? 
And learnt ; I learnt more from her in a flash ?75 
Than if my brainpan were an empty hull. 
And every Muse tumbled a science in. 
A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls, 
And round these halls a thousand baby loves 

360. frame, physiology. 

377- every muse, see note on 13. 

379. baby loves, Cupids. 



IHK PRINCESS. 45 

Fly twanging headless arrows at the hearts 380 

Whence follows many a vacant pang ; but O 

With me, Sir, enter'd in the bigger boy, 

The Head of all the golden-shafted firm, 

The long-limb'd lad that had a Psyche too : 

He cleft me thro' the stomacher ; and now 385 

What think you of it, Florian ? do I chase 

The substance or the shadow ? will it hold ? 

I have no sorcerer's malison on me, 

No ghostly hauntings like his Highness. I 

Flatter myself that always everywhere 390 

I know the substance when I see it. Well, 

Are castles shadows? Three of them? Is she 

The sweet proprietress a shadow ? If not. 

Shall those three castles patch my tatter'd coat? 

For dear are those three castles to my wants ? 395 

And dear is sister Psyche to my heart. 

And two dear things are one of double worth, 

And much I might have said, but that my zone 

Unmann'd me : then the Doctors ! O to hear 

The Doctors ! O to watch the thirsty plants +°° 

Imbibing ! once or twice I thought to roar. 

To break my chain, to shake my mane ; but thou 

Modulate me. Soul of mincing mimicry ! 

Make Hquid treble of that bassoon, my throat ; 

Abase those eyes that ever loved to meet 405 

384. The long-limb'd lad. This is a reference to the Greek legend of 
Eros and Psyche, whose mutual attachment seems to signify the necessity 
of Love to the Human Soul. 

388. malison, curse. 

404. bassoon, a wind instrument that takes the bass part. 



46 THE PRINCESS. 

Star-sisters answering under crescent brows ; 
Abate the stride, which speaks of man, and loose 
A flying charm of blushes o'er this cheek. 
Where they like swallows coming out of time 
Will wonder why they came : but hark the bell 410 
For dinner, let us go ! " 

And in we stream'd 
Among the columns, pacing staid and still 
By twos and threes, till all from end to end 
With beauties every shade of brown and fair 
In colors gayer than the morning mist, 415 

The long hall glitter'd like a bed of flowers. 
How might a man not wander from his wits 
Pierced thro' with eyes, but that I kept mine own 
Intent on her, who rapt in glorious dreams, 
The second-sight of some Astraean age, 420 

Sat compass'd with professors : they, the while, 
Discuss'd a doubt and tost it to and fro : 
A clamor thicken'd, mixt with inmost terms 
Of art and science : Lady Blanche alone 
Of faded form and haughtiest lineaments, 425 

With all her autumn tresses falsely brown, 
Shot sidelong daggers at us, a tiger-cat* 

420. The second-sight . . . age. According to the old legend Astrsea 
(Starbright), the daughter of Zeus and Themis the Goddess of Justice), 
lived among men on earth during the Golden Age, and was the last of the 
Deities to leave when that had passed away. It was believed moreover, 
that she would be the first to re-establish her home on earth should the 
Golden Age ever return. The expression in the text means therefore that 
the Princess's mind was all-engr..ssed in the prophetic vision of some 
glorious and ideal Era in the future. 

423. inmost, most technical. 

427. shallop, a light boat. 



THE PRINCESS. 47 

In act to spring. 

At last a solemn grace 
Concluded, and we sought the gardens ; there 
One walk'd reciting by herself, and one 430 

In this hand held a volume as to read, 
And smoothed a petted peacock down with that : 
Some to a low song oar'd a shallop by. 
Or under arches of the marble bridge 
Hung shadow'd from the heat : some hid and «5 

sought 
In the orange thickets : others tost a ball 
Above the fountain-jets, and back again 
With laughter : others lay about the lawns, 
Of the older sort, and murmur'd that their May 
Was passing : what was learning unto them? ^^40 

They wish'd to marry ; they could rule a house ; 
Men hated learned women : but we three 
Sat muffled like the Fates : and often came 
Melissa hitting all we saw with shafts 
Of gentle satire, kin to charity, 445 

That harm'd not : then day droopt ; the chapel bells 
Call'd us : we left the walks ; we mixt with those 
Six hundred maidens clad in purest white. 
Before two streams of light from wall to wall, 
While the great organ almost burst his pipes, 450 
Groaning for power, and rolhng thro' the court 
A long melodious thunder to the sound 

443. Sat mufiied like the Fates. These were in Classical Mythology 
the Divinities who watched over and guided the lives and fortunes of men 
from birth to death. They were three in number, and their names were 
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. They are spoken of as " muffled " be- 
cause their ways and decrees were hidden from mortal observation. 



48 THE PRINCESS. 

Of solemn psalms, and silver litanies, 

The work of Ida, to call down from Heaven 

A blessing on her labors for the world. 455 

453. silver, soft and clearly ringing, used of voices and bells in opposi- 
tion to " iron," " brazen," etc. 

454. The work of Ida This may mean either that she had written 
the words or that she had composed the music — probably both. 



Part III. 

Sweet and low, sweet and low, 

Wind of the western sea, 
Low, low, breathe and blow, 

Wind of the western sea ! 
Over the rolling waters go, i 

Come from the dying moon, and blow. 

Blow him again to me ; 
While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps. 

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, 

Father will come to thee soon ; i° 

Rest, rest, on mother's breast. 

Father will come to thee soon ; 
Father will come to his babe in the nest, 
Silver sails all out of the west 

Under the silver moon : ^5 

Sleep, my little one, sleep my pretty one, 
sleep. 



Morn in the white wake of the morning star 
Came furrowing all the orient into gold. 
We rose, and each by other drest with care. 
Descended to the court that lay three parts 
In shadow, but the Muses' heads were touch'd 
Above the darkness from their native East. 

49 



50 THE PRINCESS. 

There while we stood beside the fount, and 

watch 'd 
Or seem'd to watch the dancing bubble, approach'd 
Melissa, tinged with wan from lack of sleep, 
Or grief, and glowing round her dewy eyes ^"^ 

The circled Iris of a night of tears ; 
" And fly," she cried, " O fly, while yet you may ! 
My mother knows ; " and when I ask'd her " how," 
'' My fault," she wept, " my fault ! and yet not 

mine ; 
Yet mine in part. O hear me, pardon me. 's 

My mother, 'tis her wont from night to night 
To rail at Lady Psyche and her side. 
She says the Princess should have been the Head, 
Herself and Lady Psyche the two arms ; 
And so it was agreed when first they came ; ^° 

But Lady Psyche was the right hand now, 
And she the left, or not, or seldom used ; 
Hers more than half the students, all the love. 
And so last night she fell to canvass you : 
Jler countrywomen ! she did not envy her. ="5 

' Who ever saw such wild barbarians? 
Girls? — more like men ! ' and at these w^ords the 

snake, 
My secret, seem'd to stir within my breast ; 
And oh Sirs, could I help it, but my cheek 

9. wan, pallor. 

II. The circled . Iris was in Greek Mythology the Messenger of 
the Gods, and was later identified with the rainbow: here, refers to dark 
bands under the eyes that tells of a sleepless night of tears. 

17. side, school. 



'J'HK PRINCESS. 51 

Began to burn and burn, and her lynx eye 30 

To fix and make me hotter, till she laugh'd : 

* O marvellously modest maiden, you ! 

Men ! girls, like men ! why, if they had been men 

You need not set your thoughts in rubric thus 

For wholesale comment.' Pardon, I am shamed 35 

That I must needs repeat for my excuse 

What looks so little graceful : ' men ' (for still 

My mother went revolving on the word) 

' And so they are — very Hke men indeed — 

And with that woman closeted for hours ! ' ■^° 

Then came these dreadful words out one by one, 

' Why — these — ar^ — men : ' I shudder'd : ' and 

you know it.' 
' O ask me nothing,' I said : ' And she knows too, 
And she conceals it.' So my mother clutch'd 
The truth at once, but with no word from me ; ^^ 
And now thus early risen she goes to inform 
The Princess : Lady Psyche will be crush'd ; 
But you may yet be saved, and therefore fly ; 
But heal me with your pardon ere you go." 

" What pardon, sweet Melissa, for a blush? " 5« 
Said Cyril ; " Pale one, blush again : than wear 
Those lilies, better blush our lives away. 
Yet let us breathe for one hour more in Heaven," 
He added, " lest some classic Angel speak 

34. set in rubric, publish in red, so as to call attention to them — a 
metaphor from printing. The expression was of course suggested to 
Lady Blanche by the sight of her daughter's face burning with blushes. 

51. than wear those lilies, than be so pale. 



52 I HE PRINCESS. 

In scorn of us, ' They mounted, Ganymedes, 53 

To tumble, Vulcans, on the second morn.' 

But I will melt this marble into wax 

To yield us farther furlough ; " and he went. 

Melissa shook her doubtful curls, and thought 
lie scarce would prosper. " Tell us," Florian ^° 

ask'd, 
'• How grew this feud betwixt the right and left." 
" O long ago," she said, '' betwixt these two 
Division smoulders hidden : 'tis my mother, 
Too jealous, often fretful as the wind 
Pent in a crevice : much I bear with her : *^5 

I never knew my father, but she says 
(God help her) she was wedded to a fool ; 
And still she rail'd against the state of things. 
She had the care of Lady Ida's youth. 
And from the Queen's decease she brought her up. 7° 
But when your sister came she won the heart 
Of Ida : they were still together, grew 
(For so they said themselves) inosculated; 
Consonant chords that shiver to one note ; 
One mind in all things : yet my mother still 75 

Affirms your Psyche thieved her theories. 
And angled with them for her pupil's love : 

55-56. Ganymede was a beautiful Phrygian boy who was taken up to 
Heaven to be the cup-bearer of the Gods. Vulcan was twice cast from 
Heaven, first by his mother Juno on account of his ugliness, second by 
Jupiter for the offence of championing his mother's cause when she was 
being punished by himself. 

72. inosculated, blended together. 

74. shiver, vibrate. If there be in the same room two stringed instru- 
ments, a note struck on a chord of one will cause the corresponding chord 
in the other to vibrate. 



I'HE PRINCESS. 53 

She calls her plagiarist ; I know not what : 

But I must go : I dare not tarry," and light, 

As flies the shadow of a bird, she fled. ^^ 

Then murmur'd Florian gazing after her, 
" An open-hearted maiden, true and pure. 
If I could love, why this were she : how pretty 
Her blushing was, and how she blush'd again, 
As if to close with Cyril's random wish : ^5 

Not like your Princess cramm'd with erring pride. 
Nor like poor Psyche whom she drags in tow." 

" The crane," I said, " may chatter of the crane, 
The dove may murmur of the dove, but I 
An eagle clang an eagle to the sphere. 9° 

My princess, O my princess ! true she errs. 
But in her own grand way : being herself 
Three times more noble than three score of men, 
She sees herself in every woman else. 
And so she wears her error like a crown 's's 

To blind the truth and me ; for her, and her 
Hebes are they to hand ambrosia, mix 
The nectar ; but — ah she — whene'er she moves 

90. clang, celebrate in ringing song sphere, the sky. 

96. her, and her, Lady Psyche and Melissa 

97-100. Hebe was in Greek Mythology the attendant at the banquets 
of the Gods, whose food was ambrosia and whose drink nectar. Here 
was the wife of Zeus and Queen of Heaven ; Samos in the ^gean Sea was 
one of her favorite seats. Memnon was the son of Tithonus and Eos 
I the Goddess of the Dawn) ; the large statue at Thebes in Egypt which 
(though incorrectly) bore his name was said to give forth a musical 
sound when smitten by the rays of the rising sun. The passage thus 
means that, while Lady Psyche and Melissa are well enough with their 
youthful charni in their subordinate sphere, the Princess is the embodi- 
ment of majestic dignity, and her voice resonant and divine. 



54 THE PRINCESS. 

The Samian Here rises and she speaks 

A Memnon smitten with the morning Sun.' ^°° 

So saying, from the court we paced, and gain'd 
The terrace ranged along the northern front, 
And leaning there on those balusters, high 
Above the empurpled champaign, drank the gale 
That blown about the foliage underneath, '°5 

And sated with the innumerable rose, 
Beat balm upon our eyelids. Hither came 
Cyril, and yawning, " O hard task," be cried ; 
" No fighting shadows here ! I forced a way 
Thro' solid opposition crabb'd and gnarl'd. "^■ 

Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump 
A league of street in summer solstice down, 
Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman. 
I knock'd and, bidden, entered : found her there 
At point to move, and settled in her eyes "5 

The green malignant hght of coming storm. 
Sir, I was courteous, every phrase well-oil'd, 
As man's could be ; yet maiden-meek I pray'd 
Concealment : she demanded who we were. 
And why we came? I fabled nothing fair, ^^° 

But, your example pilot, told her all. 

104. empurpled champaign, the open country, lying blue in the 
distance . 

109. See I. 10. 

111. prime, primeval 

112. Make road-ways in the hottest season. 
115 at point, on the point of. 

120. I fabled noth'ng fair, invented no plausible story. 

121. example. Cf. II. 195. 



'JHE I'RINCESS. 55 

Up went the hush'd amaze of hand and eye. 
But when I dwelt upon your old affiance, 
She answer'd sharply that I talk'd astray. 
I urged the fierce inscription on the gate ^-s 

And our three lives. True — we had limed our- 
selves 
With open eyes, and we must take the chance. 
But such extremes, I told her, well might harm 
The woman's cause. ' Not more than now,' she 

said, 
' So puddled as it is with favoritism.' ^^° 

I tried the mother's heart. Shame might befall 
Melissa, knowing, saying not she knew : 
Her answer was ' Leave me to deal with that.' 
I spoke of war to come and many deaths, 
And she replied, her duty was to speak, ^35 

And duty, duty, clear of consequences. 
I grew discouraged. Sir; but since I knew 
No rock so hard but that a little wave 
May beat admission in a thousand years, 
I recommenced ; ' Decide not ere you pause. '•♦<' 
I find you here but in the second place. 
Some say the third — the authentic foundress you 
I offer boldly : we will seat you highest : 
Wink at our advent : help my prince to gain 
His rightful bride, and here I promise you ^-+5 

Some palace in our land, where you shall reign 

126. limed, ensnared, caught, as birds with bird-lime. 
130. puddled, polluted. 
136 clear, regardless. 



56 THE PRINCESS. 

The head and heart of all our fair she-world, 

And your great name flow on with broadening 

time 
For ever.' Well, she balanced this a little, 
And told me she would answer us to-day, 'so 

Meantime be mute ; thus much, nor more I gain'd.' 

He ceasing, came a message from the Head. 
"That afternoon the Princess rode to take 
The dip of certain strata to the North. 
Would we go with her? we should find the land ^ss 
Worth seeing ; and the river made a fall 
Out yonder ; " then she pointed on to where 
A double hill ran up his furrowy forks 
Beyond the thick-leaved platans of the vale. 

Agreed to, this, the day fled on thro' all ^^° 

Its range of duties to the appointed hour. 
Then summon'd to the porch we went. She stood 
Among her maidens, higher by the head. 
Her back against a pillar, her foot on one 
Of those tame leopards. Kittenlike he roll'd ^^s 
And paw'd about her sandal. I drew near ; 
I gazed. On a sudden my strange seizure came 
Upon me, the weird vision of our house : 
The Princess Ida seem'd a hollow show. 
Her gay-furr'd cats a painted fantasy, ^70 

Her college and her maidens, empty masks, 

I53-I54' to take the dip, to measure the inclination. 

158. ran up his furrowy forks, shot up its two peaks. 

159. platans, plane-trees. 



THE PRINCESS. 57 

And I myself the shadow of a dream, 

For all things were and were not. Yet I felt 

My heart beat thick with passion and with awe ; 

Then from my breast the involuntary sigh '75 

Brake, as she smote me with the light of eyes 

That lent my knee desire to kneel, and shook 

My pulses, till to horse we got, and so 

Went forth in long retinue following up 

The river as it narrow'd to the hills. . ^^° 

I rode beside her and to me she said : 
*' O friend, we trust that you esteem'd us not 
Too harsh to your companion yestermorn ; 
Unwillingly we spake." " No, not to her," 
I answer'd, " but to one of whom we spake ^^s 

Your Highness might have seem'd the thing you 

say." 
"Again?" she cried, "are you ambassadresses 
From him to me? we give -you, being strange, 
A license : speak, and let the topic die." 

I stammer'd that I knew him — could have 
wish'd — ^90 

" Our king expects — was there no precontract? 
There is no truer-hearted — ah, you seem 
All he prefigured, and he could not see 
The bird of passage flying south but long'd 

183. yestermorn. Cf. II. 39, 

185. one, the Prince. 

186. the^hing you say, viz.y " too harsh." 



58 THE PRINCESS. 

To follow : surely, if your Highness keep ^95 

Your purport, you will shock him e'en to death, 
Or baser courses, children of despair." 

'' Poor boy," she said, "can he not read — no 
books ? 
Quoit, tennis, ball — no games? nor deals in that 
Which men delight in, martial exercise? ^^° 

To nurse a blind ideal like a girl, 
Methinks he seems no better than a girl ; 
As girls were once, as we ourself have been : 
We had our dreams ; perhaps he mixt with them : 
We touch on our dead self, nor shun to do it, ^^5 
Being other — since we learnt our meaning here. 
To lift the woman's fallen divinity 
Upon an even pedestal with man." 

She paused, and added with a haughtier smile 
'' And as to precontracts, we move, my friend, '^^"^ 
At no man's beck, but know ourself and thee, 

Vashti, noble Vashti : Summon'd out 
She kept her state, and left the drunken king 
To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms." 

"Alas your Highness breathes full East," 1 said, 
" On that which leans to you. I know the Prince, 

1 prize his truth ; and then how vast a work 
To assail this gray preeminence of man ! 

212. Vashti, wife of King Ahasuerus. Sec Bible, Esther I. 
215. full East, cold like an east wincU 
218. gray, long established. 



THK I'RINCKSS. 59 

You grant me license ; might I use it? think : 
Ere half be done perchance your life may fail ; =20 
Then comes the feebler heiress of your plan, 
And takes and ruins all ; and thus your pains 
May only make that footprint upon san.d 
Which old-recurring waves of prejudice 
Resmooth to nothing ; might I dread that you, ^-s 
With only Fame for spouse and your great deeds 
For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss, 
Meanwhile, what every woman counts her due. 
Love, children, happiness?" 

And she exclaim'd, 
'* Peace, you young savage of the Northern wild ! ^^° 
What I tho' your Prince's love were like a god's, 
Have we not made ourself the sacrifice ? 
You are bold indeed : we are not talk'd to thus ; 
Yet will we say for children, would they grew 
Like field-flowers everywhere ! we like them well : ^-^'^ 
But children die ; and let me tell you, girl, 
Howe'er you babble, great deeds cannot die ; 
They with the sun and moon renew their light 
For ever, blessing those that look on them. 
Children — that men may pluck them from our 
hearts, ^-^^ 

Kill us with pity, break us with ourselves — 
O — children — there is nothing upon earth 
More miserable than she that has a son 

227. issue, children. 

241. break us with ourselves: crush us by means of our natural 
affections. 



6o THE PRINCESS. 

And sees him err : nor would we work for fame ; 
Tho' she perhaps might reap the applause of 
Great, ^^s 

Who learns the one pou sto whence afterhands 
May move the world, tho' she herself effect 
But little : wherefore up and act, nor shrink 
For fear our solid aim be dissipated 
By frail successors. Would, indeed, we had been, ^50 
In lieu of many mortal flies, a race 
Of giants living, each, a thousand years. 
That we might see our own work out, and watch 
The sandy footprint harden into stone." 

I answer'd nothing, doubtful in myself ^55 

If that strange Poet-princess with her grand 
Imaginations might at all be won. 
And she broke out interpreting my thoughts : 

" No -doubt we seem a kind of monster to you ; 
We are used to that : for women, up till this 2^° 
Cramp'd under worse than South-sea-isle taboo, 
Dwarfs of the gynaeceum, fail so far 
. In high desire, they know not, cannot guess 
How much their welfare is a passion to us. 
If we could give them surer, quicker proof — "^5 

246. POU STO (Greek ," a place to sta d on." "some basis from 
which one can worf jV ; the expression is derived from the challenge ot 
Archimedes, the mathematician and mechanist of Syracuse (b.c. 287-212) : 
' Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the world with a lever." 

261. taboo, a restraint. 

262 Dwarfs of the gynaeceum conveys exactly the same idea as the 
precedinsi Ime; " dwarfs " refers to their stunted intellects and aspirations. 
gynaeceum, the woman's apartments in a Greek house. 



THE PRINCESS. 6 I 

Oh if our end were less achievable 

By slow approaches, than by single act 

Of immolation, any phase of death, 

We were as prompt to spring against the pikes, 

Or down the fiery gulf as talk of it, ^7° 

To compass our dear sisters' liberties." 

She bow'd as if to veil a noble tear ; 
And up we came to where the river sloped 
To plunge in cataract, shattering on black blocks 
A breath of thunder. O'er it shook the woods, ^75 
And danced the color, and below, stuck out 
The bones of some vast bulk that lived and roar'd 
Before man was. She gazed awhile and said, 
" As these rude bones to us, are we to her 
That will be." " Dare we dream of that," I ask'd, ^^o 
" Which wrought us, as the workman and his work, 
That practice betters?" "How," she cried, "you 
love 

269-270. The the before pikes and gulf is not the definite article, but 
the generic, denoting any possible phases of death that might offer or be 
prescribed; cf, I. 218. The two forms here mentioned were probably- 
suggested by two legends of ancient Rome: (i) In the Latin War 
(B.C. 3401 Publius Decius M us, one of the Roman generals, sacrificed 
■himself on the i^pears of the enemy in order to secure the victory to his 
army, it having been revealed to him in a vision from Heaven that one 
army was doomed and the general of the other (a somewhat similar act of 
devotion is recorded of Arnold von Winkelried in the battle of Sempach, 
1388, during the Swiss struggle for independence against the Austriaiis; 
this hero, seeing that the Austrian line of spears was impregnable, gath- 
ered into his breast as many as he could, and falling upon them created a 
gap into which his comrades poured) ; 2) A chasm having appeared in the 
market-place of Rome, and the priests having declared that this would not 
close up until there had been cast into it ^he chief element of Rome's 
greatness, a young noble named Marcus Curtius, thinking that this con- 
dition would best be fulfilled by the sacrifice of one ot her sons, leapt into 
it on horseback and in full armor (B.C. 362). - Wallace. 

280-282. " Dare — betters ? " Dare we dream of the Creator as a 
workman that improves by practice? 



62 'iHK PRINCESS. 

The metaphysics ! read and earn our prize, 
A golden brooch : beneath an emerald plane 
Sits Diotima, teaching him that died ^^5 

Of Hemlock ; our device ; wrought to the life ; 
She rapt upon her subject, he on her : 
For there are schools for all." " And yet" I said 
" Methinks I have not found among them all 
One anatomic." " Nay, we thought of that," ^90 
She answer'd, " but it pleased us not : in truth 
"W'e shudder but to dream our maids should a])e 
Those monstrous males that carve the living hound. 
And cram him with the fragments of the grave. 
Or in the dark dissolving human heart, =95 

And holy secrets of this microcosm, 
Dabbling a shameless hand with shameful jest, 
Encarnalize their spirits : yet we know 
Knowledge is knowledge, and this matter hangs : 
Howbeit ourself, foreseeing casualty, 300 

Nor willing men should come among us, learnt, 
For many weary moons before we came. 
This craft of healing. Were you sick, ourself 

285-286. Diotima . . . hemlock. Diotima is mentioned by Plato as a 
piiestess of Mantinea, who used to instruct Socrates in matters philosophi- 
cal. The latter was put to death in B.C. 399 on a charge of atheism and 
immoral teaching. The ordinary method of inflicting the death penalty in 
Athens was by a decoction of the poisonous plant, hemlock. 

290. One anatomic, school of anatomy. 

296. microcosm, " little world " ,the human body). 

298. Encarnalize, brutalize. 

299. hanj-^s, i.-- undecided. 

300. casualty, accidents. 

303. This craft of healing, /./'., Medicine (as opposed to Surgery). 
" Craft " means n ij^iiialiy skill or dexterity in any employment, whence 
later, as here, the employment or profession itself. 



THK PRINCESS. 63 

Would tend upon you. To your question now, 

Which touches on the workman and his work. 305 

Let there be light and there was light : 'tis so ; 

For was, and is, and will be, are but is ; 

And all creation is one act at once, 

The birth of light : but we that are not all, 

As parts, can see but parts, now this, now that, 310 

And live, perforce, from thought to thought, and 

make 
One act a phantom of succession : thus 
Our weakness somehow shapes the shadow, Time ; 
But in the shadow will we work and mould 
The woman to the fuller day." 315 

She spake 
With kindled eyes : we rode a league beyond, 
And, o'er a bridge of pinewood crossing, came 
On flowery levels underneath the crag, 
Full of all beauty. "O how sweet" I said 
(For I was half-oblivious of my mask) 320 

"To linger here with one that loved us." " Yea," 
She answer'd, "or with fair philosophies 
That lift the fancy ; for indeed these fields 
Are lovely, lovelier not the Elysian Uwns, 

306-313. Let there be light . . the shadow, Time. Tt e Prin- 
cess's doctrine of the relation of Knowledge to iNature, as enunciated in 
these lines, may be elaborated thus: "Creation was complete in one 
moment of the Divine volition — does not depend on Time for its develop- 
ment. The fault is in us, who, being of weak and limited vision, cannot 
see all at once, aud are compelled to study Creation in a series of observa- 
tions. This weakness in ourselves we transfer to Nature, whom we thus 
grow to regard as working bit by bit ; hence the fallacious conception of 
Time, which does not exi t in Nature at all, only in ourselves, and that 
because of our imperfection." — IVaiiace. 



64 THE PRINCESS. 

Where paced the Demigods of old, and saw 325 

The soft white vapor streak the crowned towers 
Built to the Sun : " then, turning to her maids, 
" Pitch our pavilion here upon the sward : 
Lay out the viands." At the word, they raised 
A tent of satin, elaborately wrought 330 

With fair Corinna's triumph ; here she stood, 
Engirt with many a florid maiden-cheek, 
The woman-conqueror ; woman-conquer'd there 
The bearded Victor of ten-thousand hymns, 
And all the men mourn'd at his side : but we 335 
Set forth to climb ; then, climbing, Cyril kept 
With Psyche, with Melissa Florian, I 
With mine affianced. Many a little hand 
Glanced like a touch of sunshine on the rocks, 
Many a light foot shone like a jewel set 340 

In the dark crag : and then we turn'd, we wound 
About the cliffs, the copses, out and in. 
Hammering and clinking, chattering stony names 
Of shale and hornblende, rag and trap and tuff. 
Amygdaloid and trachyte, till the Sun 34s 

Grew broader toward his death and fell, and all 
The rosy heights came out above the lawns. 

324-327. lovelier . . . not to the Sun. Elysium was the name in Greek 
Mythology for the abode of the righteous dead. The title of "Demi-gods" 
originally confined to those who could boast divine descent, was also in 
common usage applied to men who had been deified for courage or other 
virtues which had won for them the privilege of inheriting Elysian bliss. 

331. Corinna was a Bceotian poetess, who is said to have obtained the 
victory in a musical contest five times over Pindar (52 2-442 ^, the most 
eminent of the Greek lyric poets of whose works a great number have 
come down to us. These are chiefly Odes and Songs of praise. 

334. the bearded Victor, Pindar. 



Part IV. 

The splendor falls on castle walls 

And snowy summits old in story : 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying. 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O hark, O hear ! how thin and clear, 

And thinner, clearer, farther going ! 
O sweet and far from chff and scar 

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing ! ^ 

Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying : 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O love, they die in yon rich sky, 

They faint on hill or field or river : 
Our echoes roll from soul to soul, ^ 

And grow for ever and for ever. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. 



" There sinks the nebulous star we call the Sun, 
If that hypothesis of theirs be sound " 
Said Ida ; " let us down and rest ; " and we 

2. hypothesis, the Nebular Hypothesis, cf. II. loi. 

65 



66 ^I'HE PRINCESS. 

Down from the lean and wrinkled precipices, 
By every coppice-feathered chasm and cleft, s 

Dropt thro' the ambrosial gloom to where below 
No bigger than a glow-worm shone the tent 
Lamp-lit from the inner. Once she leaned on me, 
Descending ; once or twice she lent her hand, 
And blissful palpitations in the blood, ^° 

Stirring a sudden transport rose and fell. 

But when we planted level feet, and dipt 
Beneath the satin dome and enter'd in. 
There leaning deep in broider'd down we sank 
Our elbows; on a tripod in the midst ^5 

A fragrant flame rose, and before us glow'd 
Fruit, blossom, viand, amber wine, and gold. 

Then she, " Let some one sing to us ; lightlier 
move 
The minutes fledged with music : " and a maid. 
Of those beside her, smote her harp, and sang. ^^ 



" Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, 
Tears from the depth of some divine despair 
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes. 
In looking on the happy Autumn-fieids, 
And thinking of the days that are no more. ^s 

" Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail. 
That brings our friends up from the underworld, 

5. coppice-feathered, lightly fringed with foliage. 

17. gold, golden vessels. 

27. the underworld, below the horizon. 



THE PRINCESS. 67 

Sad as the last which reddens over one 

That sinks with all we love below the verge ; 

So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. 30 

" Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns 
The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds 
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes 
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square ; 
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. 

" Dear as remember'd kisses after death, 
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd 
On lips that are for others ; deep as love, 
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret ; 
O Death in Life, the days that are no more." ^'' 



She ended with such passion that the tear, 
She sang of, shook and fell,, an erring pearl 
Lost in her bosom : but with some disdain 
Answer'd the Princess, " If indeed there haunt 
xA.bout the moulder'd lodges of the Past 45 

So sweet a voice and vague, fatal to men. 
Well needs it we should cram our ears with wool 
And so pace by ; but thine are fancies hatch'd 
In silken-folded idleness ; nor is it 

29. verge, horizon. 

44-48. If indeed . . . pace by, it indeed the Past has power to call 
from out its mouldering ruins with so weird and seductive a voice, fatal to 
the highest interests of humanity, we should do wisely to stuff our ears 
with wool against the temptation. There is a reference in this passage to 
Homer's story of Ulysses and the Sirens; the singing of these enchant- 
resses was so seductive that all who passed near their isle were wholly 
fascinated and lured to their doom, but Ulysses, warned by Circe, stopped 
the ears of his crew with wax, and had himself bound to the mast, that he 
might listen in safety, until his ship had gone by. 



68 THE PRINCESS. 

Wiser to weep a true occasion lost, so 

But trim our sails, and let old by-gones be. 
While down the streams that float us each and all 
To the issue, goes, like glittering bergs of ice, 
Throne after throne, and molten on the waste 
Becomes a cloud : for all things serve their time ss 
Toward that great year of equal mights and rights, 
Nor would I fight with iron laws, in the end 
Found golden ; let the past be past ; let be 
Their cancell'd Babels : tho' the rough kex break 
The starr'd mosaic, and the beard-blown goat ^° 
Hang on the shaft, and the wild fig-tree split 
Their monstrous idols, care not while we hear 
A trumpet in the distance pealing news 
Of better, and Hope, a poising eagle, burns 
Above the un risen morrow ; " then to me ; ^s 

" Know you no song of your own land," she said, 
" Not such as moans about the retrospect. 
But deals with the other distance and the hues 
Of promise ; not a death's-head at the wine." 

Then I remember'd one myself had made, 70 

What time I watched the swallow winging south 

59. cancell'd, destroyed, kex, poisonous weeds. 

61. hang on the shaft, stand on the heights of the rounded pillars. 

64. burns, shines. 

68. the other distance, the Future as opposed to the Past. 

69 a death's-head at the wine, i.e , something dismal in the midst 
of festivity. The reference is to the custom observed among the ai.cient 
Egyptians of having carried round at their banquets a wooden figure of a 
coffined corpse, as a reminder to the company of the inevitable certainty 
of death. 



I 



THE PRINCESS. 69 

From mine own land, part made long since, and 

part 
Now while I sang, and maidenlike as far 
As I could ape their treble, did I sing. 



"O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South, 75 
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves, 
And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee. 

" Oh, tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each 
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, 
And dark and true and tender is the North. ^° 

" O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and 
light 
Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill, 
And cheep and twitter twenty million loves. 

" O were I thou that she might take me in, 
And lay me on her bosom, and her heart ^s 

Would rock the snowy cradle till I died. 

" Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with 
love 
Delaying as the tender ash delays 
To clothe herself, when all the woods are green? 

" O tell her. Swallow, that thy brood is flown ; 
Say to her, I do but wanton in the South, ^i 

But in the North long since my nest is made. 

*' O tell her, brief is life but love is long. 
And brief the sun of summer in the North, 



70 JHF, I'RINCKSS. 

And brief the moon of beauty in the South. "^^^ 

'' O Swallow, flying from the golden woods, 
Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her 

mine 
And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee." 



I ceased, and all the ladies, each at each. 
Like the Ithacensian suitors in old time, '°° 

Stared with great eyes, and laugh'd with ahen lips, 
And knew not what they meant ; for still my voice 
Rang false ; but smiling " Not for thee," she said, 
" O Bulbul, any rose of Gulistan 
Shall burst her veil ; marsh-divers, rather, maid, ^°5 
Shall croak thee sister, or the meadow-crake 
Grate her harsh kindred in the grass ; and this 
A mere love-poem ! O for such, my friend. 
We hold them sHght ; they mind us of the time 
When we made bricks in Egypt. Knaves are men, 

loi. laugh'd with alien lips, an adaptation of Homer's expression — 
" laughed with other men's jaws "; i.e., in a constrained, nervous, unnat- 
ural manner, not heartily. The reference is to an incident in the story of 
Ulysses, the King of Ithaca, one of the Greek Chiefs who took part in the 
Trojan War. Owing to the protracted length of the siege and the mani- 
fold adventures that he encountered r^n his return voyage, he was absent 
from his island home for twenty years, and his faithful wife Penelope was 
beset by numerous insolent suitors. At last, through the good offices of 
Pallas Athene, the King got back to Ithaca, unknown to the intruders. 
But Pallas cast over them a strange enchantment, causing them to laugh 
wildly and nervously for no obvious reason — "with other men's jaws," 
possibly with a mysterious and hardly conscious presentiment that their 
doom was upon them at last In the passage before us this strange 
laughter on the part of the girls is prelude to the critical moment of ihe 
great disclosure. 

103-107. Not for thee ... in the grass. Bulbul is the Persian for 
"Nightingale," and Gulistan for "Rose-garden" The Persian poets 
represent the Nightingale as the passionate wooer of the Rose. 

no. ■when we made bricks in Egypt, when, like the children .if 
Israel in Egypt, we lived in bondage. Cf. F.xodus, i. 8-1 (. v. 7. 



I 



THE PRINCESS. 7 I 

That lute and flute fantastic tenderness, • "' 

And dress the victim to the offering up. 

And paint the gates of Hell with Paradise, 

And play the slave to gain the tyranny. 

Poor soul ! I had a maid of honor once ; "- 

She wept her true eyes blind for such a one, 

A rogue of cansonets and serenades. 

I loved her. Peace be with her. She is dead. 

So they blaspheme the muse ! But great is song 

Used to great ends : ourselves have often tried "° 

Valkyrian hymns, or into rhythm have dash'd 

The passion of the prophetess ; for song 

Is duer unto freedom, force and guowth 

Of spirit than to junketing and love. 

Love is it? Would this same mock-love, and this "s 

Mock-Hymen were laid up like winter bats. 

Till all men grew to rate us at our worth, 

Not vassals to be beat, nor pretty babes 

To be dandled, no, but living wills, and sphered 

Whole in ourselves and owed to none. Enough ! '3^ 

But now to leaven play with profit, you. 

Know you no song, the true growth of your soil. 

That gives the manners of your countrywomen?" 

117. canzonets, a light song, like a serenade. 

121. Valkyrian. The Valkyrs "Choosers of the Slain") were in 
Scandinavian Mythology the Warrior Nymphs who accompanied the 
heroes into battle, and conducted the slain to Valhalla, the Palace of 
Immortal Delight. The word is here used in the sense of 'inspiring." 
Cf. " Ni bean" in 352, below. 

123. duer, suitable 

126. Hymen, the god of marriage. 

I ',0. owed, bound. 



72 THE PRINCESS. 

She spoke and turn'd her sumptuous head with 
eyes 
Of shining expectation fixt on mine. ^35 

Then while I dragged my brains for such a song, 
Cyril, with whom the bell-mouth'd glass had 

wrought, 
Or master'd by the sense of sport, began 
To troll a careless, careless tavern-catch 
Of Moll and Meg, and strange experiences ^40 

Unmeet for ladies. Florian nodded at him, 
I frowning ; Psyche flush'd and wann'd and shook ; 
The lilylike Melissa droop'd her brows ; 
" Forbear," the Pjincess cried; " Forbear, Sir/' I; 
And heated thro' and thro' with wrath and love, ^45 
I smote him on the breast ; he started up ; 
There rose a shriek as of a city sack'd ; 
Melissa clamor'd, " Flee the death ; " " To horse," 
Said Ida; " home ! to horse ! " and fled, as flies 
A troop of snowy doves athwart the dusk, ^5° 

When some, one batters at tte dovecot-doors. 
Disorderly the women. Alone I stood 
With Florian, cursing Cyril, vext at heart, 
In the pavilion : there like parting hopes 
I heard them passing from me : hoof by hoof, ^ss 
And every hoof a knell to my desires, 
Clang'd on the bridge ; and then another shriek, 
"The Head, the Head, the Princess, O the Head !" 
For blind with rage she miss'd the plank, and roll'd 

137. with whom . . . had wrought, on whom the wine had taken 
effect. 

142. wann'd, paled. 



THE PRINCESS. 73 

In the river. Out I sprang from glow to gloom : ^^^ 
There whirl'd her white robe like a blossom'd 

branch 
Rapt to the horrible fall : a glance I gave, 
No more ; but woman-vested as I was, 
Plunged ; and the flood drew ; yet I caught her ; 

then 
Oaring one arm, and bearing in my left ^^s 

The weight of all the hopes of half the world. 
Strove to buffet to land in vain. A tree 
Was half disrooted from his place and sloop'd 
To drench his dark locks in the gurgUng wave 
Mid-channel. Right on this we drove and caught, ^70 
And grasping down the boughs I gain'd the shore. 

There stood her maidens glimmeringly group'd 
In the hollow bank. One reaching forward drew 
My burthen from riiine arms ; they cried " she 

lives : " 
They bore her back into the tent ; but 1, »75 

So much a kind of shame within me wrought. 
Nor yet endured to meet her opening eyes. 
Nor found my friends ; but push'd alone on foot 
(For since her horse was lost I left her mine) 
Across the woods, and less from Indian craft ^s° 
Than beelike instinct hiveward, found at length 
The garden portals. Two great statues. Art 

160. from glow to gloom, from the brilliant tent to the outer darkness. 

162. Rapt, hurried. 

166. half the world, woman. 

172. glimmeringly, indistinctly. 



74 THE PRINCESS. 

And Science, Caryatids, lifted up 

A weight of emblem, and betwixt were valves 

Of open-work in which the hunter rued ^^s 

His rash intrusion, manlike, but his brows 

Had sprouted, and the branches thereupon 

Spread out at top, and grimly spiked the gates. 



190 



A little space was left between the horns, 
Thro' which I clamber'd o'er at top with pain, 
Dropt on the sward, and up the linden walks. 
And, tost on thoughts that changed from hue to hue. 
Now poring on the glow-worm, now the star, 
I paced the terrace, till the Bear had wheel'd 
Thro' a great arc his seven slow suns. ^95 

A step 
Of lightest echo, then a loftier form 
Than female, moving thro' the uncertain gloom, 
Disturb'd me with the doubt ** if this were she," 
But it was Florian. " Hist, O hist," he said, 
'^ They seek us : out so late is out of rules. ^°° 

Moreover * seize the strangers ' is the cry. 
How came you here? " I told him : " I," said he, 
" Last of the train, a moral leper, I, 
To whom none spake, half sick at heart, return'd. 
Arriving all confused among the rest 2°5 

183. Caryatids, draped female figures used as columns in architecture. 

184. valves, gates. 

185. the hunter, Actaeon, who, having come upon Diana bathing, was 
for punishment turned into a stag, when his hounds tore him to pieces. In 
this design his branching horns are trained above into a regular pattern, 
and form the spikes at the top. 

194. Bear, the constellation, the " Great Bear." 



'I HE I'RINCKSS. 75 

With hooded brows I crept into the hall, 

And, couch'd behind a Judith, underneath 

The head of Holofernes, peep'd and saw. 

Girl after girl was call'd to trial : each 

Disclaim'd all knowledge of us : last of all, ^lo 

Melissa : trust me, Sir, I pitied her. 

She, question'd if she knew us men, at first 

Was silent; closer prest, denied it not : 

And then, demanded if her mother knew, 

Or Psyche, she affirm'd not, or denied : 215 

From whence the Royal mind, familiar with her, 

Easily gather'd either guilt. She sent 

For Psyche, but she was not there ; she call'd 

For Psyche's child to cast it from the doors ; 

She sent for Blanche to accuse her face to face ; ^^° 

And I slipt out : but whither will you now? 

And where are Psyche, Cyril? both are fled : 

What, if together? that were not so well. 

Would rather we had never come ! I dread 

His wildness, and the chances of the dark." ^^s 

'' And yet," I said, ''you wrong him more than I 
That struck him : this is proper to the clown, 
Tho' smock'd, or furr'd and purpled, still the clown. 
To harm the thing that trusts him, and to shame 

207. Judith is one of the chief heroines of Jewish history. When her 
native town, Bethulia, was being besieged by the Assyrians under Holo- 
fernes, she made her way into the general's tent and cut off his head as he 
lay asleep. Florian hid himself behind a statue which represented her 
holding the head of the slain Assyrian in her hand. 

212. knew us men, knew us to be men. 

217. either guilt, the guiit of both. 



76 THE PRINCESS. 

That which he says he loves : for Cyril, howe'er ='° 

He deal in froUc, as to-night — the song 

Might have been worse and sinn'd in grosser lips 

Beyond all pardon — as it is, I hold 

These flashes on the surface are not he. 

He has a solid base of temperament : »35 

But as the water lily starts and slides 

Upon the level in little puffs of wind, 

Tho' anchor'd to the bottom, such is he." 

Scarce had I ceased when from a tamarisk near 
Two Proctors leapt upon us, crying, " Names " : ^-^^ 
He, standing still, was clutch'd ; but I began 
To thrid the musky-circled mazes, wind 
And double in and out the boles, and race 
By all the fountains : fleet I was of foot : 
Before me shower'd the rose in flakes ; behind ^-^s 
I heard the puff'd pursuer ; at mine ear 
Bubbled the nightingale and heeded not, 
And secret laughter tickled all my soul. 
At last I hook'd my ankle in a vine. 
That claspt the feet of a Mnemosyne, »5o 

And falling on my face was caught and known. 

They haled us to the Princess where she sat 
High in the hall : above her droop'd a lamp, 

227. the clown, vulgar person. 

242. thrid, thread. 

243. boles, trunks of trees. 

250. Mnemosyne, Goddess of Memory. 
2^2. haled, dragged, hauled. 



THE PRINCESS. 77 

And made the single jewel on her brow 
Burn like the mystic fire on a mast-head. 'ss 

Prophet of storm : a handmaid on each side 
Bow'd toward her, combing out her long black hair 
Damp from the river ; and close behind her stood 
Eight daughters of the plough, stronger than men. 
Huge women blowzed with health, and wind, and 
rain, ' 260 

And labor. Each was like a Druid rock ; 
Or like a spire of land that stands apart 
Cleft from the main, and wail'd about with mews. 

Then, as we came, the crowd dividing clove 
An advent to the throne : and there beside, 
Half naked, as if caught at once from bed '^s 

And tumbled on the purple footcloth, lay 
The Hly- shining child ; and on the left, 
Bow'd on her palms and folded up from wrong, 
Her round white shoulder shaken with her sobs, ^7° 
Melissa knelt ; but Lady Blanche erect 
Stood up and spake, an affluent orator. 

'' It was not thus, O Princess, in old days : 
You prized my counsel, lived upon my lips : 
I led you then to all the Castalies ; ^75 

255-256. the mystic fire . . . storm This phenomenon, commonly 
known as " St. Elmo's Fire," appears on the tips of masts or other pointed 
objects when there is much electricity in the air, and a storm is pending. 

260. blowzed, flushed, tanned. 

263. mews, sew mews, gulls. 

275. all the Castalies. Castaly was a fountain on Parnassus, sacred 
to the Muses see note on II 13), and' s ipposed to inspire with the gift of 
poetry all who drank of it. The expression thus means " all the sources 
of culture." 



7 8 THE PRINCESS. 

I fed you with the milk of every Muse ; 
I loved you like this kneeler, and you me 
Your second mother : those were gracious times. 
Then came your new friend : you began to change — 
I saw it and grieved — to slacken and to cool ; ^^° 
Till taken with her seeming openness 
You turn'd your warmer currents all to her, 
To me you froze : this was my meed for all. 
Yet I bore up in part from ancient love, 
And partly that I hoped to win you back, ^^5 

And partly conscious of my own deserts, 
And partly that you were my civil head. 
And chiefly you were born for something great. 
In which I might your fellow-worker be. 
When time should serve ; and thus a noble scheme ^9° 
Grew up from seed we two long since had sown ; 
In us true growth, in her a Jonah's gourd. 
Up in one night and due to sudden sun : 
We took this palace ; but even from the first 
You stood in your own light and darken'd mine. ^95 
What student came but that you planed her path 
To Lady Psyche, younger, not so wise, 
A foreigner, and I your countrywoman, 
1 your old friend and tried, she new in all? 
But still her lists were swell'd and mine were 
lean ; 300 

Yet 1 bore up in hope she would be known : 

292. The Prophet Jonah's gourd that grew up in a night Cf. Jonah, 
IV.. 5-11. 

296. platied, smoothed, made easy. 



THE PRINCESS. 79 

Then came these wolves : they knew her : they 

endured, 
Long-closeted with her the yestermorn, 
To tell her what they were, and she to hear : 
And me none told : not less to an eye like mine 305 
A lidless watcher of the public weal, 
Last night, their mask was patent, and my foot 
Was to you : but I thought again : I fear'd 
To meet a cold ' We thank you, we shall hear of it 
From Lady Psyche : ' you had gone to her, 310 

She told, perforce ; and winning easy grace, 
No doubt, for slight delay, remain'd among us 
In our young nursery still unknown, the stem 
Less grain than touchwood, while my honest heat 
Were all miscounted as malignant hate 315 

To push my rival out of place and power. 
But public use required she should be known ; 
And since my oath was ta'en for pubHc use, 
I broke the letter of it to keep the sense. 
1 spoke not then at first, but watch'd them well, 32° 
Saw that they kept apart, no mischief done ; 
And yet this day (tho' yc-u should hate me for it) 
I came to tell you ; found that you had gone, 
Ridd'n to the hills, she likewise : now, T thought 

306. lidless, sleepless. 

307. patent, apparent. 

311. grace, pardon. 

313-314. the stem . . . touchwood. "Touchwood" is the name 
given to certain kinds of decayed wood, which, being exceedingly inflam- 
mable, was used to catch a spark from flint and steel. The word includes 
therefore the two ideas of rottenness and inflammability, in opposition to 
•' grain," which denotes healthy, strong-fibred wood. 

317. use, welfare. 



8o THE PRINCESS. 

That surely she will speak ; if not, then I : 325 

Did she? These monsters blazon'd what they were, 

\.ccording to the coarseness of their kind, 

For thus I hear ; and known at last (my work) 

/\nd full of cowardice and guilty shame, 

I grant in her some sense of shame, she flies ; 330 

And I remain on whom to wreak your rage, 

I, that have lent my life to build up yours, 

I that have wasted here health, wealth, and time, 

And talent, I — you know it — I will not boast : 

Dismiss me, and I prophesy your plan, 335 

Divorced from my experience, will be chaff 

For every gust of chance, and men will say 

We did not know the real light, but chased 

The wisp that flickers where no foot can tread." 

She ceased : the Princess answer'd coldly, 
" Good : 340 

Your oath is broken : we dismiss you : go. 
For this lost lamb (she pointed to the child) 
Our mind is changed : we take it to ourself." 

Thereat the Lady stretch'd a vulture throat, 
And shot from crooked lips a haggard smile. 345 
" The plan was mine. I built the nest " she said, 
"To hatch the cuckoo. Rise!" and stoop'd to 

updrag 
Mehssa : she, half on her mother propt. 
Half-drooping from her, turn'd her face, and cast 

339. the wisp, will-of-the-wisp, seen in marshes. 

347. the cuckoo. The cuckoo lays its eggs in other bird's nests. 



[ 



THE PRINCESS. 8 1 

A liquid look on Ida, full of prayer, 350 

Which melted Florian's fancy as she hung, 

A Niobean daughter, one arm out, 

Appealing to the bolts of Heaven ; and while 

We gazed upon her came a little stir 

About the doors, and on a sudden rush'd 355 

Among us, out of breath, as one pursued, 

A woman-post in flying raiment. Fear 

Stared in her eyes, and chalk'd her face, and wing'd 

Her transit to the throne, whereby she fell 

Delivering seal'd dispatches which the Head 360 

Took half-amazed, and in her lion's mood 

Tore open, silent we with blind surmise 

Regarding, while she read, till over brow 

And cheek and bosom brake the wrathful bloom 

As of some fire against a stormy cloud, 365 

When the wild peasant rights himself, the rick 

Flames, and his anger reddens in the heavens ; 

For anger most it seem'd, while now her breast. 

Beaten with some great passion at her heart, 

Palpitated, her hand shook, and we heard 370 

In the dead hush the papers that she held 

Rustle : at once the lost lamb at her feet 

Sent out a bitter bleating for its dam ; 

The plaintive cry jarr'd on her ire ; she crush'd 

The scrolls together, made a sudden turn 375 

352. A Niobean daughter. According to the old legend, Niobe was 
Queen of Thebes, and had twelve children; proud of this number, she 
exulted over Leto, who had only two, Apollo and Artemis, whereupon 
these latter slew all her family, and the Queen herself, mourning thtir loss, 
was changed into a stone, which yet continued to bewail her cruel fate. 

366. rick, hay-stack. 



^Z THE PRINCESS. 

As if to speak, but, utterance failing her, 

She whirl'd them on to me, as who should say 

" Read," and I read — two letters — one her sire's. 

" Fair daughter, when we sent the Prince your 
way 
We knew not your ungracious laws, which learnt, 380 
We, conscious of what temper you are built. 
Came all in haste to hinder wrong, but fell 
Into his father's hands, who has this night, 
You lying close upon his territory, 
Slipt round and in the dark invested you, 385 

And here he keeps me hostage for his son." 

The second was my father's running thus : 
** You have our son : touch not a hair of his head : 
Render him up unscathed : give him your hand : 
Cleave to your contract : tho' indeed we hear 39° 
You hold the woman is the better man ; 
A rampant heresy, such as if it spread 
Would make all women kick against their Lords 
Thro' all the world, and which might well deserve 
That we this night should pluck your palace 
down ; 395 

And we will do it, unless you send us back 
Our son, on the instant, whole." 

So far I read ; 
And then stood up and spoke impetuously. 

" O not to pry and peer on your reserve. 
But led by golden wishes and a hope 4«> 



THE PRINCESS. 8."? 

The child of regal compact, did I break 

Your precinct ; not a scorner of your sex 

But venerator, zealous it should be 

All that it might be : hear me, for I bear, 

Tho' man, yet human, whatsoe'er your wrongs, 405 

From the flaxen curl to the gray lock a life 

Less mine than yours : my nurse would tell me of 

you; 
1 babbled for you, as babies for the moon. 
Vague brightness ; when a boy, you stoop'd to me 
From all high places, lived in all fair lights, 410 

Came in long breezes rapt from inmost south 
And blown to inmost north ; at eve and dawn 
With Ida, Ida, Ida rang the woods ; 
The leader wildswan in among the stars 
Would clang it, and lapt in wreaths of glowworm 

light 4^5 

The mellow breaker murmur'd Ida. Now, 
Because I would have reach'd you, had you been 
Sphered up with Cassiopeia, or the enthroned 
Persephon^ in Hades, now at length. 
Those winters of abeyance all worn out, ^20 

A man I came to see you : but, indeed, 
Not in this frequence can I lend full tongue, 

415. clang, cry. glowworm, phosphorescent. 

417-419. had you been . . . Hades. Cassiopeia was a mythical 
Queen oi Ethiopia, and her name is now given to a constellation near the 
North Pole Star. Persephone was the wife of Hades, King ot the Lower 
World, which is itself known by his name. The Prince means that he 
would have won his way to the utmost recesses of Heaven and Hell to 
find her. ^ 

420. abeyance, waiting. 

422. frequence, assembly. 



84 THE PRINCESS. 

noble Ida, to those thoughts that wait 
On you, their centre : let me say but this. 

That many a famous man and woman, town 425 

And landskip, have I heard of, after seen 

The dwarfs of presage : tho' when known, there 

grew 
Another kind of beauty in detail 
Made them worth knowing ; but in you I found 
My boyish dream involved and dazzled down 430 
And master'd, while that after-beauty makes 
Such head from act to act, from hour to hour. 
Within me, that except you slay me here. 
According to your bitter statute-book, 

1 cannot cease to follow you, as they say 435 
The seal does music : who desire you more 

Than growing boys their manhood ; dying lips. 
With many thousand matters left to do. 
The breath of life ; O more than poor men wealth, 
Than sick men health — yours, yours, not mine — 
but half 440 

Without you ; with you, whole ; and of those halves 
You worthiest ; and howe'er you block and bar 
Your heart with system out from mine, I hold 
That it becomes no man to nurse despair. 
But in the teeth of clench'd antagonisms 445 

To follow up the worthiest till he die : 
Yet that I came not all unauthorized 
Behold your father's letter." 

426. landskip, landscape. 

427. The dwarfs of presage, les^ than expected, or foretold. 
445. clench'd, determined, resolute. 



THE PRINCESS. 85 

On one kpee 
Kneeling, I gave it, which she caught, and dash'd 
Unopen'd at her feet : a tide of fierce 450 

Invective seem'd to wait behind her lips. 
As waits a river level with the dam 
Ready to burst and flood the world with foam : 
And so she would have spoken, but there rose 
A hubbub in the court of half the maids 455 

Gather'd together : from the illumined hall 
Long lanes of splendor slanted o'er a press 
Of snowy shoulders, thick as herded ewes. 
And rainbow robes, and gems and gemlike eyes, 
And gold and golden heads ; they to and fro 460 
Fluctuated, as flowers in storm, some red, some pale. 
All open-mouth'd, all gazing to the light. 
Some crying there was an army in the land, 
And some that men were in the very walls. 
And some they cared not ; till a clamor grew 465 
As of a new-world Babel, woman-built. 
And worse-confounded : high above them stood 
The placid marble Muses, looking peace. 

Not peace she look'd, the Head : but rising up 
Robed in the long night of her deep hair, so 47° 
To the open window moved, remaining there 
Fixt like a beacon-tower above the waves 
Of tempest, when the crimson-rolling eye 

455 court, courtyard 

472-475. Fixt like a beacon-tower . . . dead. A tower with a 
revolving light, erected on a dangerous coast to warn vessels that may 
approach too near " Glares ruin " expresses the fierce red blaze that 
indicates the dangerousness of its neighborhood. The light is fatally 
attractive to sea-birds, which dash themselves against the thick glass and 
fall dead into the water. 



^6 THE PRINCESS. 

Glares ruin, and the wild birds on the hght 
Dash themselves dead. She stretch'd her arms and 
call'd 475 

Across the tumult and the tumult fell. 

"What fear ye, brawlers? am not I your Head? 
On me, me, me, the storm first breaks : /dare 
All these male thunderbolts : what is it ye fear? 
Peace ! there are those to avenge us and they come : 
If not, — myself were like enough, O girls, ^Si 

To unfurl the maiden banner of our rights, 
And clad in iron burst the ranks of war. 
Or, falling, protomartyr of our cause, 
Die : yet I blame you not so much for fear ; 485 

Six thousand years of fear have made you that 
From which I would redeem you : but for those 
That stir this hubbub — you and you — I know 
Your faces there in the crowd — to-morrow morn 
We hold a great convention : then shall they 49° 

That love their voices more than duty, learn 
With whom they deal, disniiss'd in shame to live 
No wiser than their mothers, household stuff. 
Live chattels, mincers of each other's fame. 
Full of weak poison, turnspits for the clown, 495 
The drunkard's football, laughing-stocks of Time, 

480. those, her brothers. 

484. protomartyr, first martyr of a cause. 

495-496. turnspits . . . football. In these trenchant phrases the 
speaker reminds them that a wife may be subjected by a brutal husband 
to degrading work or even to physical cruelty. "Clown" is a word of 
Scandinavian origin, and denotes a man of coarse temper and unrefined 
manners. ^ A " spit ''is a long pointed spike on which meat is fixed for 
roasting; " turnspit " thus.deiiotes one who is set to cook the food; the 
word is specially applied to a variety of dog, formerly employed in this 
work. 



THE PRINCESS. 87 

Whose brains are in their hands and in their heels, 
But fit to flaunt, to dress, to dance, to thrum, 
To tramp, to scream, to burnish, and to scour, 
For ever slaves at home and fools abroad." soo 

She, ending, waved her hands : thereat the crowd 
Muttering, dissolved : then with a smile, that look'd 
A stroke of cruel sunshine on the cliff, 
When all the glens are drown'd in azure gloom 
Of thunder-shower, she floated to us and said : 505 

" You have done well and like a gentleman, 
And like a Prince : you have our thanks for all : 
And you look well too in your woman's dress : 
Well have you done and like a gentleman. 
You saved our life : we owe you bitter thanks : s^o 
Better have died and spilt our bones in the flood — 
Than men had said — but now — What hinders me ? 
To take such bloody vengeance on you both ? — 
Yet since our father — Wasps in our good hive, 
You would-be quenchers of the light to be, 515 

Barbarians, grosser than your native bears — 
O would I had his sceptre for one hour ! 
You that have dared to break our bound, andgull'd 
Our servants, wrong'd and lied and thwarted us — 
/wed with thee ! /bound by precontract s^o 

Your bride, your bondslave ! not tho' all the gold 
That veins the world were pack'd to make your 

crown. 
And every spoken tongue should lord you. Sir, 

523. lord you, call you lord. 



88 THE PRINCESS. 

Your falsehood and yourself are hateful to us : 

I trample on your offers and on you : 52s 

Begone : we will not look upon you more. 

Here, push them out at gates." 

In wrath she spake. 
Then those eight mighty daughters of the plough 
Bent their broad faces toward us and address'd 
Their motion : twice I sought to plead my cause, 53° 
But on my shoulder hung their heavy hands. 
The weight of destiny : so from her face 
They push'd us, down the steps, and thro' the court. 
And with grim laughter thrust us out at gates. 

We cross'd the street and gain'd a petty mound 535 
Beyond it, whence we saw the lights and heard 
The voices murmuring. While I listen'd came, 
On a sudden the weird seizure and the doubt : 
I seem'd to move among a whirl of ghosts ; 
The Princess with her monstrous woman-guard, 540 
The jest and earnest working side by side. 
The cataract and the tumult and the kings 
Were shadows ; and the long fantastic night 
With all its doing had and had not been. 
And all things were and were not. 

This went by 545 
As strangely as it came, and on my spirits 
Settled a gentle cloud of melancholy ; . 

529. address'd, directed. 



THE PRINCESS. 89 

Not long ; I shook it off ; for spite of doubts 

And sudden ghostly shadowing I was one 

To whom the touch of all mischance but came 550 

As night to him that sitting on a hill 

Sees the midsummer, midnight, Norway sun 

Set into sunrise ; then we moved away. 



Thy voice is heard thro' rolling drums, 
That beat to battle where he stands ; 

Thy face across his fancy comes. 
And gives the battle to his hands : 

A moment, while the trumpets blow. 
He sees his brood about thy knee ; 

The next, like fire he meets the foe. 

And strikes him dead for thine and thee. 



So Lilia sang : we thought her half-possess'd, 
She struck such warbling fury thro' the words ; 
And, after, feigning pique at what she call'd 
The raillery or grotesque, or false sublime — 
Like one that wishes at a dance to change 
The music — clapt her hands and cried for war. 
Or some grand fight to kill and make an end : 
And he that next inherited the tale 
Half-turning to the broken statue, said, 
" Sir Ralph has got your colors : if I prove 
Your knight, and fight your battle, what for me ? 



90 THE PRINCESS. 

It chanced, her empty glove upon the tomb ^^ 

Lay by her like a model of her hand. 

She took it and she flung it. " Fight " she said, 

" And make us all we would be, great and good." 

He knightlike in his cap instead of casque, 

A cap of Tyrol borrow'd from the hall, =5 

Arranged the favor and assumed the Prince. 

26 Assumed, took the part of. 



Part V. 

Now, scarce three paces measured from the mound 
We stumbled on a stationary voice, 
And ^' Stand, who goes ? " " Two from the palace " I. 
"The second two : they wait," he said, "pass on ; 
His Highness wakes : " and one that clash'd in 
arms, s 

By ghmmering lanes and walls of canvas led 
Threading the soldier-city, till we heard 
The drowsy folds of our great ensign shake 
From blazon'd Hons o'er the imperial tent 
Whispers of war, 

Entering, the sudden light ^° 

Dazed me half-blind : I stood and seem'd to hear, 
As in a poplar grove when a light wind wakes 
A lisping of the innumerous leaf and dies. 
Each hissing in his neighbor's ear ; and then 
A strangled titter, out of which there brake 's 

On all sides, clamoring etiquette to death. 
Unmeasured mirth ; while now the two old kings 

2. Stationary voice, a sentinel. 

4. The second two, Cyril and Psyche had already passed. 

5. His Highness, the King. 

9. blazon'd lions, on the ensign. 

13. innumerous, innumerable. 

14. hissing, whispering. 

91 



92 THE PRINCESS. 

Began to wag their baldness up and down, 
The fresh young captains flash'd their ghttering teeth, 
The huge bush-bearded Barons heaved and blew, ^° 
And slain with laughter roll'd the gilded Squire. 

At length my Sire, his rough cheek wet with tears. 
Panted from weary sides " King, you are free ! 
We did but keep you surety for our son, 
If this be he, — or a draggled mawkin, thou ^s 

That tends her bristled grunters in the sludge :" 
For I was drench'd with ooze, and torn with briers, 
More crumpled than a poppy from the sheath, 
And all one rag, disprinced from head to heel. 
Then some one sent beneath his vaulted palm 30 
A whisper'd jest to some one near him, " Look, 
He has been among his shadows." " Satan take 
The old women and their shadows ! (thus the King 
Roar'd) make yourself a man to fight with men. 
Go : Cyril told us all." 

As boys that slink ' 35 

From ferule and the trespass-chiding eye, 
Away we stole, and transient in a trice 
From what was left of faded woman-slough 
To sheathing splendors and the golden scale 
Of harness, issued in the sun, that now 40 

25. mawkin, kitchen maid. 

26. sludge, mire. 

28. from the sheath, when just blossomed. 

37. transient, passing. 

38 Slough, covering, garment. 

40. harness, plate armor. 



THE PRINCESS. 93 

Leapt from the dewy shoulders of the Earth, 

And hit the Northern hills. Here Cyril met us. 

A little shy at first, but by and by 

We twain, with mutual pardon ask'd and given 

For stroke and song, resolder'd peace, whereon 45 

Follow'd his tale. Amazed he fled away 

Thro' the dark land, and later in the night 

Had come on Psyche weeping : *' then we fell 

Into your father's hand, and there she lies. 

But will not speak, nor stir." 

He show'd a tent 50 
A stone-shot off : we enter'd in, and there 
Among piled arms and rough accoutrements, 
Pitiful sight, wrapp'd in a soldier's cloak, 
Like some sweet sculpture draped from head to foot, 
And push'd by rude hands from its pedestal, ss 

All her fair length upon the ground she lay : 
And at her head a follower of the camp, 
A charr'd and wrinkled piece of womanhood, 
Sat watching like a watcher by the dead. 

Then Florian knelt, and " Come " he whisper'd 
to her, ^ 

" Lift up your head, sweet sister : lie not thus. 
What have you done but right? you could not slay 
Me, nor your prince : look up : be comforted : 
Sweet is it to have done the thing one ought, 
When fall'n in darker ways." And likewise I: ^s 
" Be comforted : have 1 not lost her too. 
In whose least act abides the nameless charm 



94 THE PRINCESS. 

That none has else for me?" She heard, she 

moved, 
She moan'd, a folded voice ; and up she sat, 
And raised the cloak from brows as pale and 

smooth 70 

As those that mourn half-shrouded over death 
In deathless marble. '' Her,*' she said, *' my friend — 
Parted from her — betray'd her cause and mine — 
Where shall I breathe ? why kept ye not your faith ? 
O base and bad ! what comfort ! none for me ! " 75 
To whom remorseful Cyril, " Yet I pray 
Take comfort : live, dear lady, for your child." 
At which she lifted up her voice and cried. 

" Ah me, my babe, my blossom, ah, my child. 
My one sweet child, whom I shall see no more 1 ^° 
For now will cruel Ida keep her back ; 
And either she will die from want of care, 
Or sicken with ill-usage, when they say 
The child is hers — for every little fault. 
The child is hers ; and they will beat my girl ^s 

Remembering her mother : O my flower ! 
Or they will take her, they will make her hard. 
And she will pass me by in after-life 
With some cold reverence worse than were she dead. 
Ill mother that I was to leave her there, ^° 

To lag behind, scared by the cry they made. 
The horror of the shame among them all : 

71. those that mourn, the marble figures of angels, such as occa- 
sionally form part of the design on monuments and tombs. 

90. ill, bad. 



THE PRINCESS. 95 

But I will go and sit beside the doors, 

And make a wild petition night and day, 

Until they hate to hear me like a wind 9S 

Wailing for ever, till they open to me, 

And lay my Kttle blossom at my feet. 

My babe, my sweet Aglai'a, my one child : 

And I will take her up and go my way, 

And satisfy my soul with kissing her : ^°° 

Ah ! what might that man not deserve of me 

Who gave me back my child? " "Be comforted," 

Said Cyril, " you shall have it : " but again 

She veil'd her brows, and prone she sank, and so 

Like tender things that being caught feign death, ^°5 

Spoke not, nor stirr'd. 

By this a murmur ran 
Thro' all the camp and inward raced the scouts 
With rumor of Prince Arac hard at hand. 
We left her by the woman, and without 
Found the gray kings at parle : and " Look you " 

cried "° 

My father " that our compact be fulfill'd : 
You have spoilt this child ; she laughs at you and 

man : 
She wrongs herself, her sex, and me, and him : 
But red-faced war has rods of steel and fire ; 
She yields, or war." 

Then Gama turn'd to me ; "s 
" We fear, indeed, you spent a stormy time 
With our strange girl : and yet they say that still 

110. parle, parley, conference. 



96 THE PRINCESS. 

You love her. Give us, then, your mind at large : 
How say you, war or not? " 

" Not war, if possible, 

king," I said, '^ lest from the abuse of war, ^^° 
The desecrated shrine, the trampled year. 

The smouldering homestead, and the household 

flower 
Torn from the Untel' — all the common wrong — 
A smoke go up thro' which I loom to her 
Three times a monster : now she lightens scorn ^^s 
At him that mars her plan, but then would hate 
(And every voice she talk'd with ratify it, 
And every face she look'd on justify it) 
The general foe. More soluble is this knot. 
By gentleness than war. I want her love. ^30 

What were I nigher this altho' we dash'd 
Your cities into shards with catapults, 
She would not love ; — or brought her chain'd, a 

slave. 
The lifting of whose eyelash is my lord. 
Not ever would she love ; but brooding turn ^35 

The book of scorn, till all my flitting chance 
Were caught within the record of her wrongs. 
And crush'd to death : and rather. Sire, than this 

1 would the old God of war himself were dead. 
Forgotten, rusting on his iron hills, • mo 
Rotting on some wild shore with ribs of wreck, 

121. year, harvest. 

132. shards, fragments, especially of brick or other earthware, 
catapults were contrivances employed by the ancients, and occasionally 
during the Middle Ages prior to the invention of gunpowder, for the 
hurling of large stones and other missiles against walled cities. 



THE PRINCESS. 97 

Or like an old-world mammoth bulk'd in ice, 
Not to be molten out." 

And roughly spake 
My father, '' Tut, you know them not, the girls. 
Boy, when I hear you prate I almost think '"s 

That idiot legend credible. Look you. Sir ! 
Man is the hunter; woman is his game : 
The sleek and shining creatures of the chase. 
We hunt them for the beauty of their skins ; 
They love us for it, and we ride them down. ^5° 
Wheedling and siding with them ! Out ! for shame ! 
Boy, there's no rose that's half so dear to them 
As he that does the thing they dare not do. 
Breathing and sounding beauteous battle, comes 
With the air of the trumpet round him, and leaps 
in ^55 

Among the women, snares them by the score 
Flatter'd and fluster'd, wins, tho' dash'd with death 
He reddens what he kisses : thus I won 
Your mother, a good mother, a good wife, 
Worth winning ; but this firebrand — gentleness ^^o 
To such as her ! if Cyril spake her true. 
To catch a dragon in a cherry net, 
To trip a tigress with a gossamer, 
Were wisdom to it." 

"Yea but Sire," I cried, 

146. idiot legend, legend of the sorcerer. Cf. I. 5- 
157. dashed with death, spattered with blood. 

162 cherry net, a net placed over cherry trees to protect the fruit 
from birds. 



98 THE PRINCESS. 

''Wild natures need wise curbs. The soldier? 
No : ^65 

What dares not Ida do that she should prize 
The soldier? I beheld her, when she rose 
The yesternight, and storming in extremes. 
Stood for her cause, and flung defiance down 
Gagelike to man, and had not shunn'd the death, ^7° 
No, not the soldier's : yet I hold her, king. 
True woman : but you clash them all in one. 
That have as many differences as we. 
The violet varies from the lily as far 
As oak from elm : one loves the soldier, one "75 
The silken priest of peace, one this, one that. 
And some unworthily ; their sinless faith, 
A maiden moon that sparkles on a sty. 
Glorifying clown and satyr ; whence they need 
More breadth of culture : is not Ida right? ^^° 

They worth it? truer to the law within? 
Severer in the logic of a life? 
Twice as magnetic to sweet influences 
Of earth and heaven ? and she of whom you speak. 
My mother, looks as whole as some serene "^5 

Creation minted in the golden moods 
Of sovereign artists ; not a thought, a touch. 
But pure as lines of green that streak the white 
Of the first snowdrop's inner leaves ; I say, 
Not like the piebald miscellany, man, '9° 

179 satyr, a mythological being, half man and half goat; hence 
brutal; i.e. glorifying ignorance and brutality. 

181. the law within, conscience. 

183 magnetic, susceptible. 



THE PEINCESS. 99 

Bursts of great heart and slips in sensual mire, 

But whole and one : and take them all-in-all, 

Were we ourselves but half as good, as kind, 

As truthful, much that Ida claims as right 

Had ne'er been mooted, but as frankly theirs '95 

As dueiof Nature. To our point : not war : 

Lest I lose all." 

" Nay, nay, you spake but sense " 
Said Gama. " We remember love ourself 
In our sweet youth ; we did not rate him then 
This ret-hot iron to be shaped with blows. ^°° 

You talk almost like Ida : she can talk ; 
And there is something in it as you say : 
But you talk kindlier : we esteem you for it. — 
He seems a gracious and a gallant Prince, 
I would he had our daughter : for the rest, ^^s 

Our own detention, why, the causes weigh'd, 
Fatherly fears — you used us courteously — 
We would do much to gratify your Prmce — 
We pardon it ; and for your ingress here 
Upon the skirt and fringe of our fair land, ^^° 

You did but come as goblins in the night, 
Nor in the furrow broke the ploughman's head. 
Nor burnt the grange, nor buss'd the milking- maid. 
Nor robb'd the farmer of his bowl of cream : 
But let your Prince (our royal word upon it, ="^5 

191 • great heart, noble impulses. 

195 mooted, questioned, disputed. 

204. Here Gama addresses the old king. 

211. goblins, fairies, elves. 

21;. buss'd, kissed. 



lOO THE PRINCESS. 

He comes back safe) ride with us to our lines, 
And speak with Arac : Arac's word is thrice 
As ours with Ida : something may be done — 
I know not what — and ours shall see us friends. 
You, likewise, our late guests, if so you will, 220 

Follow us : who knows ? we four may build some 

plan 
Foursquare to opposition." 

Here he reach'd 
White hands of farewell to my sire, who growl'd 
An answer which, half-muifled in his beard. 
Let so much out as gave us leave to go. -^5 

Then rode we with the old king across the lawns 
Beneath huge trees, a thousand rings of Spring 
In every bole, a song on every spray 
Of birds that piped their Valentines, and woke 
Desire in me to infuse my tale of love ^3° 

In the old king's ears, who promised help, and oozed 
All o'er with honey'd answer as we rode 
And blossom-fragrant slipt the heavy dews 
Gather'd by night and peace, with each light air 
On our mail'd heads : but other thoughts than 
Peace 235 

Burnt in us, when we saw the embattled squares, 

219. ours, our party. 

220. you, Florian and Cyril, 

222. foursquare, impregnable. Cf. Ode on the Death of the Duke 
of WeUingto)i , 39 : 

" That tower of strength 
Which stood foursquare to all the winds that blew." 

229. Valentines, love messages. 



THE PRINCESS. lOI 

And squadrons of the Prince, trampling the flowers 

With clamor : for among them rose a cry 

As if to greet the king ; they made a halt ; 

The horses yell'd ; they clash'd their arms ; the 

drum 240 

Beat ; merrily-blowing shrill'd the martial fife ; 
And in the blast and bray of the long horn 
And serpent-throated bugle, undulated 
The banner : anon to meet us lightly pranced 
Three captains. out ; nor ever had I seen 245 

Such thews of men : the midmost and the highest 
Was Arac : all about his motion clung 
The shadow of his sister, as the beam 
Of the East, that play'd upon them, made them 

glance 
Like those three stars of the airy Giant's zone, ^50 
That glitter burnish'd by the frosty dark ; 
And as the fiery Sirius alters hue, 
And bickers into red and emerald, shone 
Their morions, wash'd with morning, as they came. 

And I that prated peace, when first I heard =55 
War-music, felt the blind wildbeast of force, 
Whose home is in the sinews of a man, 

246. thews, muscles and sinews, i.e , " such muscular men." 

250 the airy Giant's zone. The three bright stars in the constella- 
tion Orion, called his " belt." 

251. frosty. Orion is brightest in England during the winter. 

252. Sirius, the dog star. 

253. bickers, flickers, glistens. 

254. morions, helmets. 



I02 ^IHE PRIXLF.SS. 

Stir in me as to strike : then took the king 

His three broad sons ; with now a wandering hand 

And now a pointed finger, told them all : ^60 

A common light of smiles at our disguise 

Broke from their lips, and, ere the windy jest 

Had labor'd down within his ample lungs, 

The genial giant, Arac, roll'd himself 

Thrice in the saddle, then burst out in words. ^^s 

'' Our land invaded, 'sdeath : and he himself 
Your captive, yet my father wills not war : 
And, 'sdeath ! myself, what care I, war or no? 
But then this question of your troth remains : 
And there's a downright honest meaning in her; ^70 
She flies too high, she flies too high ! and yet 
She ask'd but space and fairplay for her scheme ; 
She prest and prest it on me — I, myself, 
What know I of these things ! but, life and soul ! 
L thought her half-right talking of her wrongs ; =^75 
I say she flies too high, 'sdeath ! what of that? 
I take her for the flower of womankind. 
And so I often told her, right or wrong. 
And, Prince, she can be sweet to those she loves. 
And, right or wrong, I care not : this is all, ^So 

I stand upon her side : she made me swear it — 
'Sdeath ! — and with solemn rights by candle-light — 
Swear by St. something — I forget her name — 

266. 'sdeath! an old oath. 
269. troth, betrothal. 



THE PRINCESS. I03 

Her that talk'd down the fifty wisest men ; 
She was a princess too ; and so I swore. =85 

Come, this is all ; she will not : waive your claim : 
If not, the foughten field, what else, at once 
Decides it, 'sdeath ! against my father's will." 

I lagg'd in answer loth to render up 
My precontract, and loth by brainless war =9° 

To cleave the rift of difference deeper yet ; 
Till one of those two brothers, half aside 
And fingering at the hair about his lip, 
To prick us on to combat " Like to like ! 
The woman's garment hid the woman's heart." ^95 
A taunt that clench'd his purpose like a blow ! 
For fiery-short was Cyril's counter-scoff. 
And sharp I answer'd, touch'd upon the point 
Where idle boys are cowards to there shame, 
"Decide it here: why not? we are three to 
three." 300 



283-285. St. something . . princess too. The reference is to St. 
Catharine of Alexandria, an almost, if not wholly, mythical personage, 
round whose name has grown up a vast amount of legendary lore. She is 
said to have lived about the begmning of the fourth century, and to have 
been the daus^hter of Ccstus, the half brother of Constaniine, by Sabinella, 
Queen of Egypt, whom she succeeded on the throne of that country - this 
story is of course entirely without historical warrant. According to the 
commonly received legend, the Emperor M -xentius (or, as some say, 
Maximin) sent the fifty wisest men of his court to convert her from 
Christianity, but she confuted them all with their own weapons of schol- 
arly rhetoric, and won them over to her faith. 

298-299. touch'd upon the point . . . shame. The Prince means 
that, in the face of tiiis sneer he had not the courage to abide by the 
decision which his better judgment had approved. " Idle " seems to 
mean " thoughtless." Most young men of spirit would, under such a 
charge, have acted on the spur of the moment in the same manner, and, to 
rebut a scornful reflection upon their physical courage, have consented to 
an act of moral cowardice. 



I04 ' ilii^' PRINCESS. 

Then spake the third " But three to three ? no 
more? 
No more, and in our noble sister's cause ? 
More, more, for honor : every captain waits 
Hungry for honor, angry for his king. 
More, more, some fifty on a side, that each 3""^ 

May breathe himself, and quick? by overthrow 
Of these or those, the question settled die." 
" Yea," answer'd I, " for this wild wreath of air, 
This flake of rainbow flying on the highest 
Foam of men's deeds — this honor if ye will. 310 
It needs must be for honor if at all : 
Since, what decision? if we fail, we fail, 
And if we win, we fail : she would not keep 
Her compact." 'Sdeath ! but we will send to her," 
Said Arac, "worthy reasons why she should 315 

Bide by this issue : let our missive thro' 
And you shall have her answer by the word." 

''Boys !" shriek'd the old king, butvainlier than 
a hen 
To her false daughters in the pool ; for none 
Regarded ; neither seem'd there more to say : 320 
Back rode we to my father's camp, and found 
He thrice had sent a herald to the gates, 
To learn if Ida yet would cede our claim, 

306. breath, exercise. 

316. Bide by this issue, act according to the result of the fight 

317. by the word, in her very words. 

319. false daughters, ducks hatched by a hen. 



THE PRINCESS. " 105 

Or by denial flush her babbling wells 
With her own people's life : three times he went: 325 
The first, he blew and blew, but none appear'd : 
He batter'd at the doors ; none came : the next. 
An awful voice within had warn'd him thence : 
The third, and those eight daughters of the plough 
Came sallying thro' the gates, and caught his 
hair, 330 

And so belabor'd him on rib and cheek 
They made him wild : not less one glance he caught 
Thro' open doors of Ida station'd there 
Unshaken, clinging to her purpose, firm 
Tho' compass'd by two armies and the noise 335 
Of arms ; and standing like a stately Pine 
Set in a cataract on an island-crag. 
When storm is on the heights, and right and left 
Suck'd from the dark heart of the long hills roll 
The torrents, dash'd to the vale : and yet her will 340 
Bred will in me to overcome it or fall. 

But when I told the king that I was pledged 
To fight in tourney for my bride, he clash 'd 
His iron palms together with a cry ; 
Himself would tilt it out among the lads : 345 

But overborne by all his bearded lords 
With reasons drawn from age and state, perforce 
He yielded, wroth and red, with fierce demur : 
And many a bold knight started up in heat, 
And sware to combat for my claim till death, 350 

324. flush, to fill full, and redden. 
344. palms, gauntlets. 



Io6 THE PRINCESS. 

All on this side the palace ran the field 
Flat to the garden-wall : and likewise here, 
Above the garden's glowing blossom-belts, 
A column'd entry shone and marble stairs. 
And great bronze valves, emboss'd with Tomyris 355 
And what she did to Cyrus after fight, 
But now fast barr'd : so here upon the flat 
All that long morn the lists wer^e hammer'd up, 
And all that morn the heralds to and fro, 
With message and defiance, went and came ; 360 
Last^ Ida's answer, in a royal hand, 
But shaken here and there, and rolling words 
Oration-like. I kiss'd it and I read. 

" O brother, you have known the pangs we felt, 
What heats of indignation when we heard 365 

Of those that iron-cramp'd their women's feet ; 
Of lands in which at the altar the poor bride 
Gives her harsh groom for bridal-gift a scourge ; 
Of living hearts that crack within the fire 
Where smoulder their dead despots ; and of 
those, — 370 

355. valves, gates. 

355-356-. Tomyris . . . after fight. She was Queen of the Massa- 
getae, a tribe against whom Cyrus planned a wanton expedition of con- 
quest. Having solemnly warned him to desist, she at last gave him 
battle. He was slain on the field, and she then took his head and dipping 
it in a skin of blood bade him, since he was so bloodthirsty, drink his fill 
therefrom. The story which forms the subject of this ominous design is 
told by Herodotus. 

358. the lists, i.e., the enclosure designed for the combat, with the 
barriers, railings , etc 

366. In China. 

367-368. A Russian custom. 

369-370. The Hindoo custom of burning widows on the funeral piles of 
their dead husbands. 



THE PRINCESS. IO7 

Mothers, — that, all prophetic pity, fling 

Their pretty maids in the running flood, and swoops 

The vulture, beak and talon, at the heart 

Made for all noble motion : and I saw 

That equal baseness lived in sleeker times 375 

With smoother men : the old leaven leaven'd all : 

Millions of throats would bawl for civil rights, 

No woman named : therefore I set my face 

Against all men, and lived but for mine own. 

Far off from men I built a fold for them : 380 

I stored it full of rich memorial : 

I fenced it round with gallant institutes. 

And biting laws to scare the beasts of prey 

And prosper'd ; till a rout of saucy boys 

Brake on us at our books, and marr'd our peace, 385 

Mask'd like our maids, blustering I know not what 

Of insolence and love, some pretext held 

Of baby troth, invalid, since mj- will 

Seal'd not the bond — the striplings ! — for their 

sport ! — 
I tamed my leopards : shall I not tame these ? 390 
Or you ? or I ? for since you think me touch'd 
In honor — what, I would not aught of false — 
Is not our cause pure ? and whereas I know 
Your prowess, Arac, and what mother's blood 
You draw from, fight ; you failing, I abide 395 

371. prophetic pity, fearing that their daughters would remain single 
and thus be dishonored. 

372. flood, the Ganges, in India. 

381. memorial, paintings, statues, etc., memorials of great deeds. 

382. institutes, rules and regulations. 



108 THE PRINCESS. 

What end soever : fail you will not. Still 

Take not his life : he risk'd it for my own ; 

His mother lives : yet whatsoe'er you do, 

Fight and fight well ; strike and strike home. O 

dear 
Brothers, the woman's Angel guards you, you ■^'^'> 
The sole men to be mingled with our cause. 
The sole men we shall prize in the aftertime, 
Your very armor hallow'd, and your statues 
Rear'd, sung to, when, this gad-fly brush'd aside, 
We plant a solid foot into the Time, -^^s 

And mould a generation strong to move 
With claim on claim, from right to right, till she 
Whose name is yoked with children's, know herself ; 
And Knowledge in our own land make her free, 
And, ever following those two crowned twins, -^'^ 
Commerce and conquest, shower the fiery grain 
Of freedom broadcast over all that orbs 
Between the Northern and the Southern morn." 

Then came a postscript dash'd across the rest. 
" See that there be no traitors in your camp : 415 
We seem a nest of traitors — none to trust 
Since our arms fail'd — this Egypt-plague of men ! 
Almost our maids were better at their homes, 
Than thus man-girdled here : indeed I think 

4T7. this Egypt-plague of men. The reference is to the plagues of 
Egypt; these took sometimes the form of enormous crowds of pestilential 
and offensive animals, as frogs, lice, flies, and Xocusts..-— BibU, Exodus, 
VIII., X. 

404. this gadfly, temporary annoyance. 

412. all that orbs, etc., from pole to pole. 



THE PRINCESS. IO9 

Our chiefest comfort is the little child 4^° 

Of one unworthy mother ; which she left : 

She shall not have it back : the child shall grow 

To prize the authentic mother of her mind. 

I took it for an hour in mine own bed 

This morning : there the tender orphan hands +^5 

Felt at my heart, and seem'd to charm from thence 

The wrath I nursed against the world : farewell." 

I ceased ; he said, " Stubborn, but she may sit 
Upon a king's right hand in thunderstorms, 
And breed up warriors ! See now, tho' yourself 430 
Be dazzled by the wildfire Love to sloughs 
That swallow common sense, the spindling king, 
This Gama swamp'd in lazy tolerance. 
When the man wants weight, the woman takes it up. 
And topples down the scales ; but this is fixt +35 

As are the roots of earth and base of all ; 
Man for the field and woman for the hearth : 
Man for the sword and for the needle she : 
Man with the head and woman with the heart : 
Man to command and woman to obey ; ^'^'^ 

All else confusion. Look you ! the gray mare 
Is ill to live with, when her whinny shrills 
From tile to scullery, and her small goodman 

422-423. the child . her mind I will have her so brought up that 
she shall value most highly me, not her mere physical mother, but the 
genuine mother of her mind', for I shall have reared and trained it after my 
own views. 

431. wildfire, will-o'-the-wisp. 

441. the gray mare. The old proverb, " the gray mare is the better 
horse," was said of a wife who ruled her husband. 

443. tile to scullery, roof to cellar. 



no THE PRINCESS. 

Shrinks in his armchair while the fires of Hell 
Mix with his hearth : but you — she's yet a colt — **45 
Take, break her : strongly groom'd and straitly 

curb'd 
She might not rank with those detestable 
That let the bantling scald at home, and brawl 
Their rights or wrongs like potherbs in the street 
They say she's comely ; there's the fairer chance : -^s^ 
/like her none the less for rating at her ! 
Besides, the woman wed is not as we. 
But suffers change of frame. A lusty brace 
Of twins may weed her of her folly. Boy, 
The bearing and the training of a child 
Is woman's wisdom." 455 

Thus the hard old king : 
I took my leave, for it was nearly noon : 
I pored upon her letter which I held, 
And on the little clause " take not his life " : 
I mused on that wild morning in the woods, '^^^ 

And on the " Follow, follow, thou shalt win " : 
I thought on all. the wrathful king had said. 
And how the strange betrothment was to end : 
Then I remember'd that burnt sorcerer's curse 
That one should fight with shadows and should 

fall ; 465 

And like a flash the weird affection came : 
King, camp and college turn'd to hollow shows ; 
I seem'd to move in old memorial tilts, 

448 bantling, baby. 

449. potherbs, vegetables; if., as pedleis hawk vegetables. 



THK PRINCESS. IH 

And doing battle with forgotten ghosts, 

To dream myself the shadow of a dream : 470 

And ere I woke it was the point of noon, 

The lists were ready. Empanoplied and plumed 

We enter'd in, and waited, fifty there 

Opposed to fifty, till the trumpet blared 

At the barrier hke a wild horn in a land 475 

Of echoes, and a moment, and once more 

The trumpet, and again : at which the storm 

Of galloping hoofs bare on the ridge of spears 

And riders front to front, until they closed 

In conflict with the crash of shivering points, ^'^^ 

And thunder. Yet it seem'd a dream, I dream'd 

Of fighting. On his haunches rose the steed. 

And into fiery splinters leapt the lance. 

And out of stricken helmets sprang the fire. 

Part sat like rocks : part reel'd but kept their 

seats : ^^s 

Part roll'd on the earth and rose again and drew : 
Part stumbled mixt with floundering horses. Down 
From those two bulks at Arac's side, and down 
From Arac's arm, as from a giant's flail, 
The large blows rain'd, as here and everywhere ■♦^^ 
He rode the mellay, lord of the ringing lists. 
And all the plain — brand, mace, and shaft, and 

shield — 



Empanoplied, in armor, 
bare on, carried forward. 
drew, their swords. 
two bulks, Arac's brothers. 
mellay, melee, tumult of batll 



112 THE PRINCESS. 

Shock'd, like an iron-clanging anvil bang'd 
With hammers ; till I thought, can this be he 
From Gama's dwarfish loins? if this be so, +95 

The mother makes us most — and in my dream 
I glanced aside, and saw the palace-front 
Alive with fluttering scarfs and ladieS' eyes, 
And highest, among the statues, statue-like, 
Between a cymbal'd Miriam and a Jael, 500 

With Psyche's babe, was Ida, watching us, 
A single band of gold about her hair, 
Like a Saint's glory up in heaven : but she 
No saint — inexorable — no tenderness — 
Too hard, too cruel : yet she sees me fight, 505 

Yea, let her see me fall ! with that I drave 
Among the thickest and bore down a Prince, 
And Cyril, one. Yea, let me make my dream 
All that I would. But that large-moulded man. 
His visage all agrin as at a wake, 510 

Made at me thro' the press, and, staggering back 
With stroke on stroke the horse and horseman, 

came 
As comes a pillar of electric cloud. 
Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains, 
And shadowing down the champaign till it strikes 5^5 



500. Miriam . . . Jael. Two heroines of Jewish history. Miriam 
was the sister of Moses, and after the miraculous passage of the Red Sea 
she led a chorus of thanksgiving to the Almighty who had delivered them 
from their persecutors, the whole female population following her with 
cymbals and guitars Jael i< famous as having by the assassination of 
Sisera delivered the [ews from the oppression of Jabin, King of Canaan. 
—Bible, Judges, IV. 

503. glory, halo, aureole. 



THE PRINCESS. II3 

On a wood, and takes, and breaks, and cracks, and 

splits, 
And twists the grain with such a roar that Earth 
Reels, and the herdsmen cry ; for everything 
Gave way before him : only Florian, he 
That loved me closer than his own right eye, 520 
Thrust in between ; but Arac rode him down : 
And Cyril seeing it, push'd against the Prince, 
With Psyche's color round his helmet, tough. 
Strong, supple, sinew-corded, apt at arms ; 
But tougher, heavier, stronger, he that smote 525 
And threw him : last I spurr'd ; I felt my veins 
Stretch with fierce heat ; a mom.ent hand to hand, 
And sword to sword, and horse to horse we hung, 
Till I struck out and shouted ; the blade glanced, 
I did but sheer a feather, and dream and truth 530 
Flow'd from me ; darkness closed me ; and I fell. 

530. dream and truth Flowed from me, became unconscious. 





^^ 


m 




M 


M 


m 


M 


^ 


^^s 


M 


^^m 


M 


^ 


^k 


^m 



Home they brought her warrior dead 

She nor swoon'd, nor utter'd cry : 
All her maidens, watching, said, 
- " She must weep or she will die." 

Then they praised him, soft and low, 
Call'd him worthy to be loved, 

Truest friend and noblest foe ; 
Yet she neither spoke nor moved. 

Stole a maiden from her place, 
Lightly to the warrior stept, 

Took the face-cloth from the face ; 
Yet she neither moved nor wept. 

Rose a nurse of ninety years. 
Set his child upon her knee — 

Like summer tempest came her tears 
"Sweet my child, I Uve for thee." 




114 



Part VI. 

My dream had never died or lived again. 
As in some mystic middle state I lay ; 
Seeing I saw not, hearing not I heard : 
Tho' if I saw not, yet they told me all 
So often that I speak as having seen. 

For so it seem'd, or so they said to me, 
That all things grew more tragic and more strange ; 
That when our side was vanquish'd and my cause 
Forever lost, there went up a great cry. 
The Prince is slain. My father heard and ran ^° 
In on the lists, and there unlaced my casque 
And grovell'd on my body, and after him 
Came Psyche, sorrowing for Agla'ia. 

But high upon the palace Ida stood 
With Psyche's babe in arm : there on the roofs ^5 
Like that great dame of Lapidoth she sang. 



" Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n : the seed. 
The little seed they laughed at in the dark, 

i6. that great dame of Lapidoth. The reference is to the Hebrew 
prophetess, iJeborah, wife of Lapidoth, who, when her nation were groan- 
ing under the tyranny of Jabin, King of Canaan, instigated Barak to rise 
and expel the heathen oppressor. After a signal victory over the latter 
she and Barak sang together a splendid pean of triumph — Bible, Judges 

17-42. The tone and language of this Song are based upon the main 
idea that inspires it — viz., a comparison between the cause represented by 
the College and a tree. 

i»5 



I I 6 IHE PRINCESS. 

Has risen and cleft the soil, and grown a bulk 

Of spanless girth, that lays on every side ^^ 

A thousand arms and rushes to the Sun. 

" Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n : they 
came ; 
The leaves were wet with women's tears : they 

heard 
A noise of songs. they would not understand : 
They mark'd it with the red cross to the fall, 
And would have strown it, and are fall'n them- 
selves. =^5 

** Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n ; they came ; 
The woodmen with their axes : lo the tree ! 
But we will make it faggots for the hearth, 
x\nd sharpe it plank and beam for roof and floor, 3^ 
And boats and bridges for the use of men. 

" Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n : they 
struck ; 
With their own blows they .hurt themselves, nor 

knew 
There dwelt an iron nature in the grain : 
The glittering axe was broken in their arnls, 35 

Their arms were shatter'd to the shoulder blade. 
" Our enemies have fall'n, but this shall grow 
A night of Summer from the heat, a breadth 

25. the red cross. This, marked on a tree, was the sign of condem- 
nation. 

38. night of, shade in. breadth of Autumn, a mighty harvest. 



THE PRINCESS. I j y 

Of Autumn, dropping fruits of power : and roU'd 
With music in the growing breeze of Time, t° 

The tops shall strike from star to star, the fangs 
Shall move the stony bases of the world. 

" And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary 
Is violate, our laws broken : fear we not 
To break them more in their behoof, whose arms 
Champion'd our cause and won it with a day 46 
Blanch'd in our annals, and perpetual feast. 
When dames and heroines of the golden year 
Shall strip a hundred hollows bare of Spring, 
To rain an April of ovation round 50 

Their statues, borne aloft, the three : but come. 
We will be liberal, since our rights are won. 
Let them not lie in the tents with coarse mankind, 
111 nurses : but descend, and proffer these 
The brethren of our blood and cause, that there ss 
Lie bruised and maim'd the tender ministries 
Of female hands and hospitahty." 

She spoke, and with the babe yet in her arms. 
Descending, burst the great bronze valves, and led 
A hundred maids in train across the Park. ^ 

Some cowl'd, and some bare-headed, on they came. 
Their feet in flowers, her lovliest : by them went 

41. -fangs, roots. 

47. Blanch'd, marked. 

48. golden. See note on IV. 400. 
49 Spring, spring flowers. 

50. an April, the month of showers, hence, a shower. 



Il8 THE PRINCESS. 

The enanior'd air sighing, and on their curls 

From the high tree the blossoms wavering fell, 

And over them the tremulous isles of light ^s 

Slided, they moving under shade : but Blanche 

At distance follow'd : so they came : anon 

Thro' open field into the lists they wound 

Timorously ; and as the leader of the herd 

That holds a stately fretwork to the Sun, 7° 

xA.nd follow'd up by a hundred airy does, 

Steps with a tender foot, light as on air, 

The lovely, lordly creature floated on 

To where her wounded brethren lay ; there stay'd ; 

Knelt on one knee, — the child on one, — and prest 

Their hands, and call'd them dear deliverers, 76 

And happy warriors, and immortal names. 

And said " You shall not lie in the tents but here, 

And nursed by those for whom you fought, and 

served 
With female hands and hospitality." ^° 

Then, whether moved by this, or was it chance, 
She past my way. Up started from my side 
The old lion, glaring with hjs whelpless eye. 
Silent ; but when she saw me lying stark, 
Dishelm'd and mute, and motionlessly pale, ^s 

Cold ev'n to her, she sigh'd ; and when she saw 
The haggard father's face and reverend beard 
Of grisly twine, all dabbled with the blood 

65. isles of light, the sunshine falling through the leaves. 
70. fretwork, his branching antlers. 
83. whelpless, childless. 



THE PRINCESS. II9 

Of his own son, shudder'd, a twitch of pain 

Tortured her mouth, and o'er her forehead past 9° 

A shadow, and her hue changed, and she said : 

" He saved my Hfe : my brother slew him for it." 

No more : at which the king in bitter scorn 

Drew from my neck the painting and the tress, 

And held tliem up : she saw them, and a day 95 

Rose from the distance on her memory, 

When the good Queen, her mother, shore the tress 

With kisses, ere the days of Lady Blanche : 

And then once more she looked at my pale face : 

Till understanding all the foolish work ^°° 

Of Fancy, and the bitter close of all, 

Her iron will was broken in her mind ; 

Her noble heart was molten in her breast ; . 

She bow'd, she set the child on the earth ; she laid 

A feehng finger on my brows, and presently ^°5 

*• O Sire," she said, " he lives : he is not dead : - 

O let me have him with my brethren here 

In our own palace : we will tend on him 

Like one of these ; if so, by any means, 

To lighten this great clog of thanks, that make "° 

Our progress falter to the woman's goal." 

She said : but at the happy word " he lives," 
My father stoop'd, refather'd o'er my wounds. 
So those two foes above my fallen life, 

loi. Fancy, her fantastic ideas. 

iio-iii. The feeling of dependence on man, which her gratitude to the 
Prince for saving her life and to her brothers for their support iinpUes, 
have caused the Princess's faith in the certainty of progress to " the 
woman's goal " to falter. 



I20 THE PRINCESS. 

With brow to brow like night and evening mixt "5 
Their dark and gray, while Psyche ever stole 
A little nearer, till the babe that by us, 
Half-lapt in glowing gauze and golden brede, 
Lay like a new-fall'n meteor on the grass, 
Uncared for, spied its mother and began ^^^ 

A blind and babbling laughter, and to dance 
Its body, and reach out its fatling innocent arms 
And lazy lingering fingers. She the appeal 
Brook'd not, but clamoring out, ^' Mine — mine — 

not yours. 
It is not yours, but mine : give me the child," ^^s 
Ceased all on tremble : piteous was the cry : 
So stood the unhappy mother open-mouth'd, 
And turn'd each face her way : wan was her cheek 
With hollow watch, her blooming mantel torn. 
Red grief and mother's hunger in her eye, '3° 

And down dead-heavy sank her curls, and half 
The sacred mother's bosom, panting, burst 
The laces toward her babe ; but she nor cared 
Nor knew it, clamoring on, till Ida heard, 
Look'd up, and rising slowly from me, stood ^35 

Erect and silent, striking with her glance 
The mother, me, the child ; but he that lay 
Beside us, Cyril, batter'd as he was, 
Trail'd himself up on one knee : then he drew 
Her robe to meet his hps, and down she look'd ^40 
At the arm'd man sideways, pitying as it seem'd 

118. brede, embroidery. 

130. Red grief, grief that makes red the eyes with weeping. 



THE PRINCESS. 121 

Or self-involved ; but when she learnt his face, 
Remembering his ill-omen'd song, arose 
Once more thro' all her height, and o'er him grew 
Tall as a figure lengthen'd on the sand hs 

When the tide ebbs in sunshine, and he said : 

'' O fair and strong and terrible ! Lioness 
That with your long locks play the Lion's mane ! 
But Love and Nature, these are two more terrible 
And stronger. See, your foot is on our necks, ^5© 
We vanquish'd, you the Victor of your will. 
What would you more ? give her the child ! remain 
Orb'd in your isolation : he is dead, 
Or all as dead : henceforth we let you be : 
Win you the hearts of women ; and beware ^ss 

Lest, where you seek the common love of these, 
The common hate with the revolving wheel 
Should drag you down, and some great Nemesis 
Break from a darken'd future, crown'd with fire, 
And tread you out forever : but howsoe'er ^^° 

Fix'd in yourself, never in your own arms 
To hold your own, deny not hers to her, 
Give her the child ! O if, I say, you keep 
One pulse that beats true woman, if you loved 

142. self-involved, wrapt in thought. 

157. with the revolving wheel. The expression is derived from 
Classical Mythology, which represents the fortunes of the world and all 
therein as governed by Fate working a wheel round and round, the 
imagery being of course suggested by the constant reactions observable in 
the careers of men and institutions. 

158. Nemesis was to the Greeks the Goddess of Moral Justice, and as 
such was most commonly regarded as the personification of Divine Retri- 
bution for insolence or reckless defiance of established principles. It is in 
this capacity that Cyril warns Ida to beware of her. 



12 2^ J HE PRINCESS. 

The breast that fed or arm that dandled you, ^^s 

Or own one port of sense not flint to prayer, 

Give her the child ! or if you scorn to lay it, 

Yourself, in hands so lately claspt with yours, 

Or speak to her, your dearest, her one fault 

The tenderness, not yours, that could not kill, '7° 

(live me it : /will give it her.'' 

He said : 
At first her eye with slow dilation roll'd 
Dry flame, she listening ; after sank and sank 
And, into mournful twilight mellowing, dwelt 
Full on the child ; she took it : "■ Pretty bud ! ^75 
Lily of the vale ! half open'd bell of the woods ! 
Sole comfort of my dark hour, when a world 
Of traitorous friend and broken system made 
No purple in the distance, mystery, 
Pledge of a love not to be mine, farewell ; ^^° 

These men are hard upon us as of old. 
We two must part ; and yet how fain was I 
To dream thy cause embraced in mine, to think 
I might be something to thee, when I felt 
Thy helpless warmth about my barren breast ^^5 

In the dead prime : but may thy mother prove 
As true to thee as false, false, false to me ! 
And, if thou needs must bear the yoke, I wish it 
Gentle as freedom " — here she kiss'd it : then — 
'' All good go with thee ! take it. Sir," and so ^90 

166. port, portal. 

180. a love not to be mine, the love of mother. 

r86, dead prime, dead of night, darkest hour just before dawn. 



THE PRINCESS. I23 

Laid the soft babe in his hard-mailed hands, 
Who turn'd half-round to Psyche as she sprang 
To meet it, with an eye that swum in thanks ; 
Then felt it sound and whole from head to foot. 
And hugg'd and never hugg'd it close enough, '9s 
And in her hunger mouth 'd and mumbled it, 
And hid her bosom with it ; after that 
Put on more calm and added suppliantly : 

" We two were friends : 1 go to mine own land 
Forever : find some other : as for me ~°° 

I scarce am fit for your great plans : yet speak to 

me, 
Say one soft word and let me part forgiven." 

But Id* spoke not, rapt upon the child. 
Then A^ac. " Ida — sdeath ! you blame the man ! 
You wrong yourselves — the woman is so hard ^^s 
Upon the woman. Come, a grace to me ! 
I am your warrior : I and mine have fought 
Your battles : kiss her ; take her hand, she weeps : 
Sdeath ! I would sooner fight thrice o'er than sec 
it." 

But Ida spoke not, gazing on the ground, ^'° 

And reddening in the furrows of his chin, 
And moved beyond his custom, Gama said : 

" I've heard that there is iron in the blood, 
And I believe it. Not one word? not one? 

con. grace, favor. 



124 IHE PRINCESS. 

Whence drew you this steel temper? not from 
me, "5 

Not from your mother, now a saint with saints. 
She said you had a heart — 1 heard her say it — 
' Our Ida has a heart ' — just ere she died — 
' But see that some one with authority 
Be near her still,' and I — I sought for one — ^^° 
All people said she had authority — 
The Lady Blanche : much profit ! Not one word ; 
No ! tho' your father sues : see how you stand 
Stiff as Lot's wife, and all the good knights maim'd, 
I trust that there is no one hurt to death, ^25 

For your wild whim : and was it then for this. 
Was it for this we gave our palace up. 
Where we withdrew from summer heats and state, 
And had our wine and chess beneath the planes. 
And many a pleasant hour with her that's gone, ^30 
Ere you were born to vex us? Is it kind? 
Speak to her I say : is this not she of whom. 
When first she came, all flush'd you said to me 
Now had you got a friend of your own age, 
Now could you share your thought; 'now should 
men see =35 

Two women faster welded in one love 
Than pairs of wedlock ; she you walk'd with, she 
You talk'd with, whole nights long, up in the tower. 
Of sine and arc, spheroid and azimuth. 
And right ascension. Heaven knows what ; and now 

239 sine and. arc . . . spheroid . . . ascension, technical terms in 
astronomy. 



THE PRINCESS. I 25 

A word, but one, one little kindly word. 

Not one to spare her : out upon you, flint ! 

You love nor her, nor me, nor any ; nay, 

You shame your mother's judgment too. Not one? 

You will not? well — no heart have you, or such =^45 

As fancies like the vermin in a nut 

Have fretted all to dust and bitterness." 

So said the small king moved beyond his wont. 

But Ida stood nor spoke, drain'd of her force 
By many a varying influence and so long. =50 

Down thro' her limbs a drooping languor wept : 
Her head a little bent ; and on her mouth 
A doubtful smile dwelt like a clouded moon 
In a still water : then brake out my sire. 
Lifting his grim head from my wounds. " O you. 
Woman, whom we thought woman even now, ^56 
And were half fool'd to let you tend our son, 
Because he might have wish'd it — but we see 
The accomplice of your madness unforgiven. 
And think that you might mix his draught with 
. death, ^^° 

When your skies change again : the rougher hand 
Is safer : on to the tents : take up the Prince." 

He rose, and while each ear was prick'd to attend 
A tempest, thro' the cloud that dimm'd her broke 
A genial warmth and light once more, and shone ^65 
Thro' glittering drops on her sad friend. 

261. When your skies change again, when your tamper change* 



126 THE PRINCESS. 

*' Come hither, 

Psyche," she cried out, " embrace me, come, 
Quick while I melt ; make reconcilement sure 
With one that cannot keep her mind an hour ; 
Come to the hollow heart they slander so ! ^70 
Kiss and be friends, like children being chid ! 
/seem no more : /want forgiveness too : 

1 should have had to do with none but maids, 
That have no Hnks with men. Ah false but dear, 
Dear traitor, too much loved, why? — why? — Yet 

see, ^75 

Before these kings we embrace you yet once more 
With all forgiveness, all oblivion, 
And trust, not love, you less. 

And now, O sire, 
Grant me your son, to nurse, to wait upon him. 
Like mine own brother. For my debt to him, ^So 
This nightmare weight of gratitude, I know it ; 
Taunt me no more : Yourself and yours shall have 
Free adit : we will scatter all our maids 
Till happier times each to her proper hearth : 
What use to keep them here — now? grant my 

prayer. ^^s 

Help, father, brother, help ; speak to the king : 
Thaw this male nature to some touch of that 
Which kills me with myself, and drags me down 
From my fixt height to mob me up with all 

283 adit, access. 
284. proper, own. 
289 mob me up, merge me with all the mob of. 



THE PRINCESS. I 27 

The soft and" milky rabble of womankind, ^go 

Poor weakling ev'n as they are." 

Passionate tears 
Follow'd : the king replied not : Cyril said : 
''Your brother, Lady, — Florian, — ask for him 
Of your great head — for he is wounded too — 
That you may tend upon him with the prince." ^95 
*• Ay so," said Ida with a bitter smile, 
" Our laws are broken : let him enter too." 
Then Violet, she that sang the mournful song, 
And had a cousin tumbled on the plain, 
Petition'd too for him. '' Ay so," she said, 300 

*' I stagger in the stream : I cannot keep 
My heart an eddy from the brawHng hour : 
We break our laws with ease, but let it be." 
'' Ay so? " said Blanche : " x^mazed am I to hear 
Your Highness: but your Highness breaks with 
ease 305 

The law your Highness did not make : 'twas I. 
I had been wedded wife, I knew mankind. 
And block'd them out ; but these men came to woo 
Your Highness — verily I think to win." 

So she, and turn'd askance a wintry eye : 310 

But Ida with a voice, that like a bell 
Toll'd by an earthquake in a trembling tower. 
Rang ruin, answer'd full of grief and scorn. 

" Fling our doors wide ! all, all, not one, but all. 
Not only he, but by my mother's soul, 315 

298. the song. Cf. IV. 21-40. 



128 THE PRINCESS. 

Whatever man lies wounded, friend or foe, 
Shall enter, if he will. Let our girls flit, 
Till the storm die ! but had you stood by us, 
The roar that breaks the Pharos from his base 
Has left us rock. She fain would sting us too, 320 
But shall not. Pass, and mingle with your likes. 
We brook no further insult but are gone." 

She turn'd ; the very nape of her white-neck 
Was rosed with indignation : but the Prince 
Her brother came ; the king her father charm'd 325 
Her wounded soul with words : nor did mine own 
Refuse her proffer, lastly gave his hand. 

Then us they hfted up, dead weights, and bare 
Straight to the doors : to them the doors gave way 
Groaning, and in the -Vestal entry shriek'd 330 

The virgin marble under iron heels : 
And on they moved and gain'd the hall, and there 
Rested : but great the crush was, and each base. 
To left and right, of those tall columns drown'd 
In silken fluctuation and the swarm 335 

Of female whisperers : at the farther end 
Was Ida by the throne, the two great cats 
Close by her, like supporters on a shield, 
Bow-back'd with fear : but in the centre stood 

319. the Pharos, a famous ancient lighthouse built about B.C. 250 ) on 
the Island of Pharos, near Alexandria. 

330. Vestal, dedicated to woman, untrodden by foot of man. 

338. supporters, the name given, in heraldry, to the two figures that 
stand on either side of a coat of arms. 



THE PRINCESS. I29 

The common men with rolling eyes ; amazed 340 

They glared upon the women, and aghast 

The women stared at these, all silent, save 

When armor clash'd or jingled, while the day 

Descending, struck athwart the hall, and shot 

A flying splendor out of brass and steel, 345 

That o'er the statues leapt from head to head, 

Now fired an angry Pallas on the helm. 

Now set a wrathful Dian's moon on flame. 

And now and then an echo started up. 

And shuddering fled from room to room, and died 

Of fright in far apartments. 35° 

Then the voice 
Of Ida sounded, issuing ordinance : 
And me they bore up the broad stairs, and thro' 
The long-laid galleries past a hundred doors 
To one deep chamber shut from sound, and due 355 
To languid limbs and sickness ; left me in it ; 
And others otherwhere they laid ; and all 
That afternoon a sound arose of hoof 
And chariot, many a maiden passing home 
Till happier times ; but some were left of those 360 
Held sagest, and the great lords out and in. 
From those two hosts that lay beside the walls, 
Walk'd at their will, and everything was changed. 

347. Pallas, the Goddess of Wisdom. 

348. Dian, Diana, the Goddess of Purity, whose symbol was the 
moon. 

352. ordinance, orders. 

355. due, appropriate for. 



Part Vll. 

Ask me no more : the moon may draw the sea ; 
The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the 

shape 
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape ; 
But O too fond, when have I answer'd thee? 

Ask me no more. s 

Ask me no more : what answer should I give ? 
I love not hollow cheek or faded eye : 
Yet, O my friend I will not have thee die ! 

Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live ; 

Ask me no more. '° 

Ask me no more : thy fate and mine are seal'd : 
I strove against the stream and all in vain : 
Let the great river take me to the main : 

No more, dear love, for at touch I yield ; 

Ask me no more. ^5 



So was their sanctuary violated. 
So their fail college turn'd to hospital ; 
At first with all confusion : by and by 
Sweet order lived again with other laws : 
A kindlier influence reign'd ; and everywhere 5 

Low voices with the ministering hand 
Hung round the sick : the maidens came, they talk'd, 

130 



THE PRINCKSS. I31 

They sang, they read ; till she not fair began 
'To gather light, and she that was, became 
Her former beauty treble ; and to and fro ^^ 

With books, with flowers, with Angel offices, 
Like creatures native unto gracious act. 
And in their own clear element, they moved. 

But sadness on the soul of Ida fell. 
And hatred of her weakness blent with shame. ^5 
Old studies fail'd ; seldom she spoke : but oft 
Clomb to the roofs, and gazed alone for hours 
On that disastrous leaguer, swarms of men 
Darkening her female field : void was her use, 
And she as one that climbs a peak to gaze ^° 

O'er land and main, and sees a great black cloud 
Drag inward from the deeps, a wall of night, 
Blot out the slope of sea from verge to shore, 
And suck the blinding splendor from the sand, 
And quenching lake by lake and tarn by tarn '^'- 
Expunge the world : so fared she gazing there ; 
So blacken 'd all her world in secret, blank 
And waste it seem'd and vain ; till down she came 
And found fair peace once more among the sick. 

12. native unto, who take naturally to. 

17. Clomb, climbed. 

18. leaguer, camped armies 

19. void was her use, her wonted occupation was gone. 
23. verge, horizon. 

25. tarn, a small lake; pond. 



132 THE PRINCESS. 

And twilight dawn'd; and morn by morn the^ 
lark 30 

Shot up and shrill'd in flickering gyres, but I 
Lay silent in the muflled cage of life : 
And twilight gloom'd ; and broader-grown the 

bovVers 
Drew the great night into themselves, and Heaven, 
Star after star, arose and fell ; but I 35 

Deeper than those weird doubts could reach me, 

lay . 
Quite sunder'd from the moving Universe, • 

Nor knew what eye was on me, nor the hand 
That nursed m^^, more than infants in their sleep. 

But Psyche tendered Florian : with her oft, 4° 
Melissa came : for Blanche had gone, but left 
Her child among us, willing she should keep 
Court-favor : here and there the small bright head, 
A light of healing, glanced about the couch. 
Or thro' the parted silks the tender face +5 

Peep'd, shining in upon the wounded man 
With blush and smile, a medicine in themselves 
To wile the length from langorous hours, and draw 
The sting from pain ; norseem'd it strange that soon 
He rose up whole, and those fair charities 5° 

Join'd at her side : nor stranger seem'd that hearts 
So gentle, so employ'd, should close in love, 
Than when two dewdrops on the petals shake 

31. gyres, circles 

45. silks, curtains of the beds. 

50-51. fair charities, Florian and Melissa. 



THE PRINCESS. 1 33 

To the same sweet air, and tremble deeper down, 
And slip at once all-fragrant into one. 55 

Less prosperously the second suit obtain'd 
At first with Psyche. Not tho' Blanche had sworn 
That after that dark night among the fields 
She needs must wed him for her own good name ; 
Not tho' he built upon the babe restored ; ^^ 

Nor tho' she liked him, yielded she, but fear'd 
To incense the Head once more ; till on a day 
When Cyril pleaded, Ida came behind 
Seen but of Psyche : on her foot she hung 
A moment, and she heard, at which her face ^s 
A little flush'd, and she past on ; but each 
Assumed from thence a half-consent involved 
In stillness, plighted troth, and were at peace. 



70 



Nor only these : Love in the sacred halls 
Held carnival at will, and flying struck 
With showers of random sweet on maid and man. 
Nor did her father cease to press my claim. 
Nor did mine own now reconciled ; nor yet 
Did those twin brothers, risen again and whole ; 
Nor Arac, satiate with his victory. 75 

But I lay still, and with me oft she sat : 
Then came a change ; for sometimes I would catch 

56. obtain'd, prevailed. 
60. built upon, based his suit upon. 
67. involved in stillness, implied in silence. 

71. showers of random sw°et. At carnival time it is customary to 
pelt one another with flowers and sweetmeats. 



134 I'HE PRINCESS. 

Her hand in wild delirium, gripe it hard, 

And fling it like a viper off, and shriek 

** You are not Ida ; " clasp it once again, ^° 

And call her Ida, tho' I knew her not, 

And call her sweet, as if in irony, 

And call her hard and cold which seem'd a truth : 

And still she fear'd that I should lose my mind, 

And often she believed that I should die : ^s 

Till out of long frustration of her care. 

And pensive tendance in the all-weary noons 

And watches in the dead, the dark, when clocks 

Throbb'd thunder thro' the palace floors, or call'd 

On flying Time from all their silver tongues — 9° 

And out of memories of her kindlier days, 

And sidelong glances at my father's grief, 

And at the happy lovers heart in heart — 

And out of hauntings of my spoken love. 

And lonely listenings to my mutter'd dream, 95 

And often feeling of the helpless hands. 

And wordless broodings on the wasted cheek — 

From all a closer interest flourish'd up. 

Tenderness touch by touch, and last, to these, 

Love, like an Alpine harebell hung with tears ^°^ 

By some cold morning glacier ; frail at first 

And feeble, all unconscious of itself. 

But such as gather'd color day by day. 

Last I woke sane, but well-nigh close to death 
For weakness : it was evening : silent light ^°5 

88. the dead, dead of night. 



THE PRINCESS. 1 35 

Slept on the painted walls, wherein were wrought 

Two grand designs : for on one side arose 

The women up in wild revolt, and storm'd 

At the Oppian law. Titanic shapes, they cramm d 

The forum, and half-crush'd among the rest "° 

A dwarf- like Cato cower'd. On the other side 

Hortensia spoke against the tax ; behind, 

A train of dames ; by axe and eagle sat. 

With all their foreheads drawn in Roman scowls, 

And half the wolfs-milk curdled in their veins, "s 

The fierce triumvers ; and before them paused 

Hortensia pleading : angry was her face. 

I saw the forms : I knew not where I was : 
They did but look like hollow shows ; nor more 

109. the Oppian law. In b.c. 215, during the second Punic War, 
when Rome was in extreme peril from Hannibal, the Tribune Cams 
Oppius carried a Sumptuary Law, to restrain the luxury of the Roman 
women in the matter of dress, ornaments, etc. Twenty years afterwards, 
the crisis having passed, the women rose in fury and forced its repeal, in 
spite of the determined opposition of Cato. The Roman historian, Livy, 
gives a graphic account of the tumultuous excitement and wild enerey 
displayed by the women on this occasion Ti anic, colossal; cf. The 
Day-Dream, 229 — '* Titanic forces." The Titans were in Greek Myth- 
ology the gigantic sons of Heaven and Earth, who inhabited the universe 
during the primeval chaos. 

112. the tax. The assassination of Julius Csesar (b.c. 44'* having 
thrown Rome into great confusion, there was formed not long afterwards 
a Commission of Public Safety, consisting of Anthony, Uctavian, and 
Lepidus. These three, having declared war against Brutus and Cassius, 
sought to defray the necessary expenses of the campaign by levying a tax 
on wealthy matrons, bSt the eloquence of Hortensia procured the rejection 
of the proposal. 

113. by axe and eagle. These were the two emblems of ofificial 
authority in the Roman Republic, the former signifying the civil power of 
punishment, and being always borne before the Magistrates in public, the 
latter typifying military strength and prowess, and forming the chief 
standard of the army. 

115. wolf's-milk. According to an old legend Romulus, the founder 
of Rome, was suckled by a wolf 

119. They did but look like hollow shows. This originally ran: — 
" Sad phantoms conjured out of circumstance. 
Ghosts of the fading brain, they seem'd." 



136 THE PRINCESS. 

Sweet Ida : palm to palm she sat : the dew ^2° 

Dwelt in her eyes, and softer all her shape 

And rounder seem'd : I moved : I sigh'd : a touch 

Came round my wrist, and tears upon my hand : 

Then all for languor and self-pity ran 

Mine down my face, and with what life I had, ^^5 

And like a flower that cannot all unfold. 

So drench'd it is with tempest, to the sun, 

Yet, as it may, turns toward him, I on her 

Fixt my faint eyes, and utter'd whisperingly : 

" If you be, what I think you, some sweet 
dream, ^30 

I would but ask you to fulfill yourself: 
But if you be that Ida whom I knew, 
I ask you nothing : only, if a dream. 
Sweet dream, be perfect. I shall die to-night. 
Stoop down and seem to kiss me ere I die." ^35 

I could no more, but lay like one in trance, 
That hears his burial talk'd of by his friends, 
And cannot speak, nor move, nor make one sign, 
But lies and dreads his doom. She turn'd ; 'she 

paused ; 
She stoop'd ; and out of languor leapt a cry ; ^40 

120. the dew. Cf. II. 295-6. 

121-122, softer . . . seem'd, as though in sympathy with the change 
that had come over her heart. 

124. all for languor, out of sheer weakness. 

140. languor, deathly weakness. 



THE PRINCESS. I 37 

Leapt fiery Passion from the brinks of death ; 

And I believed that in the living world 

My spirit closed with Ida's at the lips ; 

Till back I fell, and from mine arms she rose 

Glowing all over noble shame ; and all '45 

Her falser self slipt from her like a robe, 

And left her woman, lovelier in her mood 

Than in her mould that other, when she came 

From barren deeps to conquer all with love ; 

And down the streaming crystal dropt ; and she ''s^ 

Far-fleeted by the purple island-sides. 

Naked, a double light in air and wave. 

To meet her Graces, where they deck'd her out 

For worship without end ; nor end of mine, 

Stateliest, for thee ! but mute she glided forth, '=5 

Nor glanced behind her, and I sank and slept, 

Fill'd thro, and thro, with Love, a happy sleep. 



141-143. Leapt ... at the lips. This originally ran: — 

" Crown'd Passion from the brinks of death, and up 
Along the shuddering senses struck the soul, 
And closed on fire with Ida's at the lips." 

142. the living world seems to mean [that the kiss was a reality and 
not one of his wierd seizures. H. T.] 

143. My spirit . .lips. Qi. Locksley HaU,-^Z — 

" And our spirits rush'd together at the touching of the lips." 

145. Glo^ving . . . shame. See note on II. i66. 

146. Her falser self, i.e., the false unwomanly element in her. 

147. woman, emphatic — " pure woman." 

147-154. lovlier . . . without end This is a beautiful description (f 
the traditional birth of Venus, whose Greek name Aphrodite, perhaps sig- 
nifies "foam-born." On rising from the sea ("barren," a common 
epithet of the sea in Greek poetry, is here aptly used to accentuate the 
contrast between the origin of the Goddess and her function) she was 
taken charge of by the Graces, whose duty it was to adorn her and keep 
her beautiful The islands specially devoted to her service were Cyprus, 
Cos, and Cythera. 

154. mine, i.e., my worship. 

155. thee, the Princess. 



138 THE PRINCESS. 

Deep in the night I woke : she, near me, held 
A volume of the Poets of her land : 
There to herself, all in low tones, she read. 



'* Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white : 
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk ; 
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font : 
The fire-fly wakens : waken thou with me. 

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a 
ghost, 165 

And like a ghost she ghmmers on to me. 

Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars, 
And all thy heart lies open unto me. 

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves 
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me. ^^° 

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up. 
And slips into the bosom of the lake : 
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and shp 
Into my bosom and be lost in me." 



I heard her turn the page ; she found a small ^75 
Sweet Idyl, and once more, as low, she read : 



" Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain 
height : 

167. all Danae to the stars, i e., wholly open to their influence 
Danae was an Argive Princess, who was confined in an inaccessible tower 
for safety, but Zeus obtained admittance to her in the form of a shower of 
gold. 



•JHL I'RINCKSS. 139 

What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang) 
In height and cold, the splendor of the hills? 
But cease to move so near the Heavens, and 
cease ^^'' 

To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine, 
To sit a star upon the sparkling spire ; 
And come, for Love is of the valley, come, 
For Love is of the valley, come thou down 
And find him ; by the happy threshold, he, ^^5 

Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize, 
Or red with spited purple of the vats. 
Or foxlike in the vine ; nor cares to wa.lk 
^Vith Death and Morning on the silver horns, 
Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine, '^o 
Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice, 
That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls 
To roll the torrent out of dusky doors : 
But follow; let the torrent dance thee down 
To find him in the valley ; let the wild ^95 

Lean-headed Eagles yelp alone, and leave 
The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill 
Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke, 
That like a broken purpose waste in air : 
So waste not thou ; but come ; for all the vales ^°° 
Await thee ; azure pillars of the hearth 
Arize to thee ; the children call, and I 
Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound. 
Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet ; 
Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, =<^5 

The moan of doves in immemorial elms, 
And murmuring of innumerable bees." 

189. silver horns, the tops of snow-capped mountains. 

190. white, snowy. 

191. firths of ice, glaciers. 

198. water-smoke, spray (cascades'!. 
201. azure pillars, the blue-smoke. 



I40 THE PRINCESS. 

So she low-toned ; while with shut eyes I lay 
Listening ; then look'd. Pale was the perfect face ; 
The bosom with long sighs labor'd ; and meek ^^° 
Seera'd the full lips, and mild the luminous eyes, 
And the voice trembled and the hand. She said 
Brokenly, that she knew it, she had fail'd 
In sweet humility ; had fail'd in all ; 
That all her labor was but as a block =^^5 

Left in the quarry ; but she still were loth, 
She still were loth to yield herself to one 
That wholly scorn'd to help their equal rights 
Against the sons of men, and barbarous laws. 
She pray'd me not to judge their cause from her =20 
That wrong'd it, sought far less for truth than power 
In knowledge : something wild within her breast, 
A greater than all knowledge, beat her down. 
And she had nursed me there from week to week: 
Much had she learnt in little time. In part ^25 
It was ill counsel had misled the girl 
To vex true hearts : yet she was but a girl — 
" Ah fool, and made myself a Queen of farce ! 
When comes another such ? never, I think, 
Till the Sun drop, dead, from the signs." 

Her voice =3° 
Choked, and her forehead sank upon her hands. 
And her great heart thro' all the faultful Past 
Went -sorrowing in a pause I dared not break; 

230. Till the Sun . . . signs, i e , till the final dissolution of Nature. 
The expression has reference to the old-world partition of the zodiac into 
twelve districts, each known by the name of some animal or other dis- 
tinguishing " sign," as "the Lion," "the Fishes," "the Virgin," "The 
Scales." 



THE PRINCESS. I4I 

Till notice of a change in the dark world 

Was lispt about the acacias, and a bird, ^35 

That early woke to feed her little ones, 

Sent from a dewy breast a cry for light : 

She moved, and at her feet the volume fell. 

" Blame not thyself too much," I said, " nor 
blame 
Too much the sons of men and barbarous laws ; ^^° 
These were the rough ways of the world till now. 
Henceforth thou hast a helper, me, that know 
The woman's cause is man's : they rise or sink 
Together, dwarfd or godlike, bond or free : 
For she that out of Lethe scales with man ^^s 

The shining steps of Nature, shares with man 
His nights, his days, moves with him to one goal, 
Stays all the fair young planet in her hands — 
If she be small, slight-natured, miserable. 
How shall men grow? but work no more alone ! ^50 
Our place is much : as far as in us lies 
We two will serve them both in aiding* her — 
Will clear away the parasitic forms 
That seem to keep her up but drag her down — 
Will leave her space to burgeon out of all ^ss 

Within her — let her make herself her own 

234. Change, dawn. 

245. out of Lethe, oblivion, from her birth. Lethe f oblivion), was a 
river in Hades. 

248. Stays ... in her hands, controls the destiny of the future inhab- 
itants of the planet. 

253. forms, conventionalities. 

255. burgeon, blossom 



142 THE PRINCESS. 

To give or keep, to live and learn and be 

All that not harms distinctive womanhood. 

For woman is not undevelopt man, 

But diverse : could we make her as the man, ^^^ 

Sweet Love were slain : his dearest bond is this, 

Not like to like, but like in difference. 

Yet in the long years liker must they grow 

The man be more of woman, she of man : 

He gain in sweetness and in moral height, ^^s 

Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world ; 

She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, 

Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind ; 

Till at the last she set herself to man. 

Like perfect music unto noble words ; 270 

And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time, 

Sit side by side, fuU-summ'd in all their powers. 

Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, 

Self-reverent each and reverencing each. 

Distinct in individualities, =75 

But like each other ev'n as those who love. 

Then comes the stateHer Eden back to men : 

Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and 

calm : 
Then springs the crowning race of humankind. 
May these things be ! " 

272. full-summed, developed. 

Lines 271-9 may be paraphrased thus : — " And so these two, the man 
and the woman, in some distant age, when the fulness of time has come, 
shall sit throned together, in perfect development of soul and body, sowing 
the seeds that shall ripen to the harvest of the future, each inspired with a 
strong reverence both for self and for the other, each distirict from the 
other m the special characteristics of sex, but both enjoying the perfect 
unity that springs from perfect love. Then shall come back perfection. 
~- Wallace. 



IHK PRINCESS. 143 

Sighing she spoke " I fear ^^° 
They will not." 

" Dear, but let us type them now 
In our own lives, and this proud watchward rest 
Of equal ; seeing either sex alone 
Is half itself, and in true marriage lies 
Nor eq'ial, nor unequal : each fulfils =^5 

Defect in each, and always thought in thought. 
Purpose in purpose, will in will, they grow. 
The single pure and perfect animal. 
The two-cell'd heart beating, with one full stroke, 
Life." 

And sighing she spoke : '' A dream ^90 

That once was mine ! what woman taught you 

this?" 

* 

" Alone," I said, " from earlier than I know. 

Immersed in rich foreshadowings of the world, 
I loved the woman : he, that doth not, lives 
A drowning life, besotted in sweet self, ^^s 

Or pines in sad experience worse than death, 
Or keeps his wing'd affections dipt with crime : 
Yet was there one thro' whom I loved her, one 
Not learned, save in gracious household ways, 
Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants, 300 

No Angel, but a dearer being, all dipt 
In Angel instincts, breathing Paradise, 
Interpreter between the Gods and men, 

281 type, typify, exemplify 
282, -rest, be no more mentioned. 



144 THE PRINCESS. 

Who look'd all native to her place, and yet 

On tiptoe seem'd to touch upon a sphere 30s 

Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce 

Sway'd to her from their orbits as they moved, 

And girdled her with music. Happy he 

With such a mother ! faith in woman kind 

Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high 31° 

Comes easy to him, and tho' he tript and fall 

He shall not blind his soul with clay." 

'' But I," 
Said Ida, tremulously, " so all unlike — 
It seems you love to cheat yourself with words : 
This mother is your model. I have heard 315 

Of your strange doubts: they well might be: I 

seem 
A mockery to my own self. Never, Prince ; 
You cannot love me." 

" Nay but thee " I said 
" From yearlong poring on thy pictured eyes, 
Ere seen I loved, and loved thee seen, and saw 32° 
Thee woman thro' the crust of iron moods 
That mask'd thee from men's reverence up, and 

forced 
Sweet love on pranks of saucy boyhood : now, 
Giv'n back to life, to life indeed, thro' thee, 
Indeed I love : the new day comes, the light, 325 
Dearer for night, as dearer thou for faults 

308. This figure is derived from the poetical belief in the " Music of 
the Spheres." 

321. Thee woman, thee, a true woman; the crust of iron moods, 
the outward shell of severity. 



THE PRINCESS. 1 45 

Lived over : lift thine eyes ; my doubts are dead, 
My haunting sense of hollow shows : the change, 
This truthful change in thee has kill'd it. Dear, 
Look up, and let thy nature strike on mine, 330 

Like yonder morning on the blind half-world ; 
Approach and fear not ; breathe upon my brows ; 

In that fine air I tremble, all the past- 
Melts mist-like into this bright hour, and this 
Is morn to more, and all the rich to come 335 

Reels, as the golden autumn woodland reels 
Athwart the smoke of burning weeds. Forgive me, 
I waste my heart in signs : let be. My bride. 
My wife, my life. O we will walk this world, 
Yoked in all exercise of noble end, 340 

And so thro' those dark gates across the wild 
That no man knows. Indeed I love thee : come. 
Yield thyself up : my hopes and thine are one : 
Accomphsh thou my manhood and thyself ; 
Lay thy sweet hands in mine and trust to me." 345 

331. blind half-world, the hemisphere that is yet wrapped in 
darkness . 

333. signs, mere words. 

340. end, aim. 

341. dark gates, i.e., of deiith. 



CONCLUSION. 

So closed our tale, of which I give you all 
The random scheme as wildly as it rose : 
The words are mostly mine ; for when we ceased 
There came a minute's pause, and Walter said, 
*' I wish she had not yielded ! " then to me, 
" What, if you dressed it up poetically ! " 
So pray'd the men, the women : 1 gave assent : 
Yet how to bind the scattered scheme of seven 
Together in one sheaf? What style could suit? 
The men required that I should give throughout ^ 
The sort of mock-heroic gigantesque. 
With which we banter'd litde Lilia first : 
The women — and perhaps they felt their power, 
For something in the ballads which they sang, 
Or in their silent influence as they sat, ^ 

Had ever seem'd to wrestle with burlesque, 
And drove us, last, to quite a solemn close — 
They hated banter, wish'd for something real, 
A gallant fight, a noble princess — why 
Not make her true-heroic — true-sublime ? ' - 

Or all, they said, as earnest as the close? 
Which yet with such a framework scarce could be. 
Then rose a little feud betwixt the two, 

146 



THE PRINCESS. 1 47 

Betwixt the mockers and the realists : 

And I, betwixt them both, to please them both, *5 

And yet to give the story as it rose, 

I moved as in a strange diagonal, 

And maybe neither pleased myself nor them. 

But Lilia pleased me, for she took no part 
In our dispute : the sequel of the tale ^'^ 

Had touch'd her ; and she sat, she pluck'd the 

grass, 
She flung it from her, thinking : last, she fixt 
A showery glance upon her aunt, and said, 
" You — tell us what we are " who might have told. 
For she was cramm'd with theories out of books, 35 
But that there rose a shout : the gates were closed 
At sunset, and the crowd were swarming now, 
To take their leave, about the garden rails. 

So I and some went out to these : we climb'd 
The slope to Vivian-place, and turning saw ^'^ 

The happy valleys, half in hght, and half 
Far-shadowing from the west, a land of peace ; 
Gray halls alone among their massive groves ; 
Trim hamlets ; here and there a rustic tower 
Half-lost in belts of hop and breadths of wheat ; +5 
The shimmering glimpses of a stream ; the seas ; 
A red sail, or a white ; and far beyond, 
Imagined more than seen, the skirts of France. 

27. as in a strange diagonal. This is an illustration of the character 
of the treatment of the story, which does not maintain a consistent tone 
throughout, but, having begun in a festive mood, proceeds gradually 
though irregularly to a grave conclusion. 

33. showery, tearful. 



T48 THE PRINCESS. 

" Look there, a garden ! " said my college friend, 
The Tory member's elder son, '' and there ! so 

God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off, 
And keeps our Britain, whole within herself, 
A. nation yet, the rulers and the ruled — 
Some sense of duty, something of a faith, 
Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made ss 
Some patient force to change them when we will, 
Some civic manhood firm against the crowd — 
But yonder, whiff ! there comes a sudden heat, 
The gravest citizen seems to lose his head. 
The king is scared, the soldier will not fight, ^° 

The little boys begin to shoot and stab, 
A kingdom topples over with a shriek 
Like an old woman, and down rolls the world 
In mock heroics stranger than our own ; 
Revolts, republics, revolutions, most, ^s 

No graver than a schoolboys' barring out ; 
Too comic for the solemn things they are, 
Too solemn for the comic touches in them, 
Like our wild Princess with as wise a dream 
As some of theirs — God bless the narrow seas ! 70 
I wish they were a whole Atlantic broad." 

"Have patience," I replied, "ourselves are full 

48. skirts, the borders, coasts. 

49. a garden ! England. 

50. there ! France ; Tory member, member of Conservative Party of 
English Parliament. 

51. narrow sea . English channel. 

58- yonder. France; heat, revolution, political disturbance. 
66 no graver, of no more importance. 

barring out, barring the door against the school teacher. 



THE PRINCE. 

Of social wrong ; and maybe wildest ^. 
Are but the needful preludes of the truti 
For me, the genial day, the happy crowd, 
The sport half-science, fill me with a faith. 
This fine old world of ours is but a child \ 

Yet in the go-cart. Patience ! Give it time 
To learn its limbs : there is a hand that guides." 

In such discourse we gain'd the garden rails, ^o 
And there we saw Sir Walter where he stood. 
Before a tower of crimson holly-oaks. 
Among six boys, head under head, and look'd 
No little lily-handed Baronet he, 
A great broad-shoulder'd genial Englishman, ^s 

A lord of fat prize-oxen and of sheep, 
A raiser of huge melons and of pine, 
A patron of some thirty charities, 
A pamphleteer on guano and on grain, 
A quarter-sessions chairman, abler none ; , 9° 

Fair-hair'd and redder than a windy morn ; 
Now shaking hands with him, now him, of those 
That stood the nearest — now address'd to speech — 
Who spoke few words and pithy, such as closed 
Welcome, farewell, and welcome for the year 95 

To follow : a shout rose again, and made 

94, closed, included. 

78. go-cart, a framework on rollers that was formerly used to support 
children while learning to walk. 

82. Holly-oaks, hollyhocks. 

87. pine, pineapples. 

90. quarter-session chairman, justice of the peace. 



.E PRINX-ESS. 

^1 the approching rookery swerve 
ms, and shook the branches of the deer 
e to slope thro' distant ferns, and rang 
the bourn of sunset ; O, a shout ^°° 

c joyful than the city-roar that hails 
/remier or king ! Why should not these great wSirs 
Give up their parks some dozen times a year 
To let the people breathe? So thrice they cried, 
I likewise, and in groups they stream'd away. ^°5 

But we went back to the Abbey, and sat on. 
So much the gathering darkness charm'd : we sat 
But spoke not, rapt in nameless reverie, 
Perchance upon the future man : the walls 
Blacken, d about us, bats wheei'd, and owls 
whoop 'd, '^° 

And gradually the powers of the night. 
That range above the region of the wind. 
Deepening the courts of twilight broke them up 
Thro' all the silent spaces of the worlds. 
Beyond all thought into the Heaven of Heavens, "s 

Last little Lilia, rising quietly. 
Disrobed the glimmering statue of Sir Ralph 
From those rich silks, and home well-pleased we 
went. 

97. rookery, the rooks, a species of crow. 

98. branches, antlers. 
100. bourn, limit. 

112. the region of the wind, the atmosphere. 

113. broke them up, divided the darkness, I'.f., the stars began to 
shine. 



FIVE CENl 



No. 4th Grade. (^Continued.') N 



105. Stories and Rhymes of Birdland. I. 

106. Stories and Rhymes of Birdland. II. 

107. Stories and Rhymes of Flowerland. I. 

108. Stories and Rhymes of Flowerland. II. 
125. Selections from- Longfellow. 

5th Grade. 

23. Hawthorne's Three Golden Apples. 

24. Hawthorne's Miraculous Pitcher. 

33. The Chimaera. (Hawthorne.) 

34. Paradise of Children. (Hawthorne.) 
92. Audubon. 

97. Jefferson. 
102. Nathan Hale. 

6th Grade. 

15. Legend of Sleepy Hollow. (Irving.) 

16. Rip Van Winkle, etc. (Irving.) 

32. King of the Golden River. (Ruskin.) 

39. We are Seven, etc. (Wordsworth.) 

47. Rab and His Friends. 

50. Christmas Eve, etc. (Irving.) 

54. Pied Piper of Hamelin. (Browning.) 

55 John Gilpin, etc. (Cowper.) 

57. Lady of the Lake. Canto I. (Scott.) 

66. Declaration of Independence. 

67. Thanatopsis and Other Poems. 

84. The Minotaur. Hawthorne.) 

85. The Pygmies. (Hawthorne.) 



.93.,.^ -ce. ( 

94. Snow Image. (HawtK 
126. Selections from LongfelK 

7th Grade. 

5. Story of Macbeth. 

6. Lays of Ancient Rome. — i. 
10. Enoch Arden. (Tennyson.) 

17. Philip of Pokanoket. (Irving.) 

18. The Voyage, etc. (Irving.) 

40. Ancient Mariner. (Coleridge.) 

41. Evangeline. (Longfellow.) 

58. Lady of the Lake. Canto U. (Sc 

8th Grade. 

The Deserted Village. 
Othello, etc. (Lamb. 
The Tempest, etc. (Lamb.V f 
L'Allegro and Other Poems. 
As You Like It. (Shakespear 
Merchant of Venice (Shakes]- 
Henry th« Eighth. (Shakesp* 
The Elegy, etc. (Gray.) 
Lady of the Lake. Canto III. 
Sir Roger De Coverley. 
Cotter's Saturday Night (Bu 
58. Sir Launfal. (Lowell.) 
[I. The Prisoner of Chillon. (By 
[2. Lady of the Lake. ,jCanta.jy . 
[3. Lady of the Lake. Canto F. 
14. Lady of the Lake. Canto VI. 



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